A Historical Tour

Friday afternoon, we met up with our director Miranda at Place Victor Hugo in downtown Grenoble.  This is a very historical part of town with rather upscale apartment buildings and shopping centers that resemble the architecture in Paris.  We walked past the childhood home of 19^th century French writer Stendhal.  (The school I attend here is named after him: Université de Grenoble Stendhal 3.)   This photo is of the intricate terrace outside of the home.  

We learned that there is actually a Notre Dame Cathedral here in Grenoble!  It’s basically just a regular old church, nothing like its big sister in Paris, but it’s still kind of neat to say, “Meet me at Notre Dame.”  Near Notre Dame, we viewed the Fontaine des Trois Ordres, which is a huge fountain/statue representing Grenoble’s significance as the starting point of the French Revolution.  The top has three men depicting the clergy, nobility, and the Third Estate (i.e. everybody else).   In the late 18^th century, the French aristocracy and Church were extremely powerful.  Despite their knowledge of a poor harvest and starving citizens, they continued to use the fiscal gains from high taxes for their own purposes and actually proposed increasing taxes.  On June 7, 1788, King Louis XVI sent soldiers to Grenoble to control the masses that were beginning to rebel.  That day is now known as the “Day of Tiles” because Grenoble citizens apparently climbed the rooftops and began launching roof tiles down at the soldiers.  The fountain describes this story, with the words Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, and Justice boldly displayed.

We also saw the Fontaine des Dauphins, which has scary looking fanged fish-monster things that are apparently dolphins haha!  Grenoble was the capital of the old Dauphiné region, a province of France since 1349.  Dauphin, which refers to the oldest son/heir to the throne, comes from one of the queens continually referring to her son as “my little dolphin!  mon petit dauphin!”  So basically there are lots of weird looking fish/dolphin things all over Grenoble. 

As we were looking at that fountain, Miranda kindly let us know that a few people were guillotined in that square during the Revolution.  People would actually rent out their upper level apartments so people could watch from the windows.  Gross! 

Along with the many older historical elements of the city, there are many big hotels and business areas that were built up for the 1968 Olympics.  Lovely architecture, needless to say (not!)  Oh well.  On Wednesday, they’re having a 40-year anniversary celebration with a reenactment of lighting the torch. 

Fun Fact: Café de la Table Ronde in Grenoble is the second oldest café in all of France (1739), second only to Café Procope in Paris (1686).  I’ll have to make sure to go there at some point!  

To view more photos of Grenoble, click below:

Grenoble Sights