Isère, the heart of the Dauphiné region
Ever since the last Dauphin of Viennois conceded his beautiful province to the King of France (a transaction dating back to 1349), Isère and Grenoble have been at the heart of a region that is both diverse and united, with a Parliament and a University that foreshadowed the flight towards freedom as early as 1788.


Thus, Isère is somewhat like a miniature France: proud and hard-working people, whether in the rich valleys and wooded hills in the north or perched on the perpetually snow-capped mountains in the south. Industrious or meditative, the people of Isère have kept their temperament and culture, in spite of their powerful, but beneficial neighbours, such as the Provence or Savoy regions and Italy.

In the fashion of a Parisian advertising slogan, "you can find everything in Isère". As Stendhal put it so well: "passing from gold to snow, I watched the pages of a sublime musical score open up before me". And speaking of music, the most famous of all French romantic musicians, Berlioz, was born here, in Côte-Saint-André.

Who has not heard of the mythical Chartreuse, the valiant Vercors, ever erect like a fortress, the mineral Oisans, not forgetting Roman Vienne and the king of all rivers, the Rhône, which forms one of Isère's borders?

Everything in this department, stretching from the Rhone to the Alps, will entice you to stray for the typical tourist track, with innumerable routes and sites both beautiful and original, interspersed with seventy four Logis de France, each as different as their respective settings. A powerful and diverse land, a sincere welcome, a large book of nature-adventures to browse through far away from over-populated, concrete urban cities.