Lyon - Grenoble. 17 May (by car)

The Saone is marked Yellow, which means, Do not try to travrel upstream. It may be Green tomorrow or Thursday. So a trip to Grenoble, 105 km from Lyon, is called for. But first a walk along the Saone to check out the mooring Dan and Margaret had in 2010 when they were speeding down the Saone and Rhone. 

According to Roams log they should have had the mooring at this place. Saone looks quite friendly but water level is on orange alert. 

Beautiful trees, according to Manfred, some type of acacia. At the port L' Adroise the dessert was made with flowers from this tree. Lovely sweet scent.

On our way to see the Alps from Grenoble. We have never been to Grenoble before and only know that it hosted the Winter Olympics 1968. We also think we  know that it is a popular ski resort.

We have a hotel on the Place Victor Hugo, but can only check in at 3pm, so lunch at a sidewalk cafe.

Staying in the hotel de Angleterre in the centre of Grenoble. Cannot miss a lot of hot bath so leaving blogging over to Carl.

We take the cable way up to the Bastille. It lifts us 266 m over the city and we are looking forward to some exceptional views och the Alps. Definitely decided that we would walk down, the trip up being worse than a rough boat trip, according the Leslie. Walk down took 40 minutes and was lovely. 

Carl is very proud to have Mont Blanc behind his right ear. 

The Bastille is built on the mountain range Chatreuse which is right north of the city. To the west is the mountain range Belledonne and to the west is the Vecor range and in the south Oisans. 

The story of the Bastille is fascinating. The fortress with its at that time most advanced artillery equipment was built to defend Grenoble from the then belived hostile Savoyan. When the Bastille was finally ready the Savoyan territories had by some treaty been incorporated into France. Hence no shots were ever fired from the Chatreuse hillside. But everyone is encourage to have a shot of the Chatreuse liqueur after a meal with gratin dauphinois.

The beautiful surroundings of Grenoble.

Beautiful mountains.

Leslie at a selection of sediment rocks. 

Best food in Grenoble. Gratin Dauphinois. At our brasserie it was served with a very tasty bowl of Jouex de boeuf.  To round off a shot of Chatreuse. 

Have seen the name Stendhal here and there over France and was wondering who he is.

Today in Grenoble saw that there is a theatre production based on a book by Stendhal, The Red and Black (English title). Looked up and found this  info:

Marie-Henri Beyle (French: [bɛl]; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (French: [stɛ̃dal] or [stɑ̃dal];^[1] in English [ˈstɒ̃dɑːl],^[2] /stɛnˈdɑːl/,^[3] or /stænˈdɑːl/^[4]), was a 19th-century French writer. Best known for the novels Le Rouge et le Noir (The Red and the Black, 1830) and La Chartreuse de Parme (The Charterhouse of Parma, 1839), he is highly regarded for the acute analysis of his characters' psychology and considered one of the earliest and foremost practitioners of realism.

There is more information about his interesting life, was born in Grenoble, and was in Napoleons army, saw Moas ow burning. Something to look into next year.