Grenoble City Centre

The Jardin des Dauphins is easily accessible on foot. You can also take Tram E to the Fratellini Esplanade stop, or Tram A, B or C to the Victor Hugo stop. If travelling by car, the Porte de France car park is located next to the starting point.

(S/E) With your back to the Jardin des Dauphins, turn left and walk along the quays bordering the Isère river until you reach the end of Quai Xavier Jouvin at the Casemate.

(1) Take the bridge over the Isère (Pont de Chartreuse), cross Place Émé de Marcieu and enter Parc Albert Michaillon on the right. Walk along the right-hand side of the park and the museum to reach Avenue du Maréchal Randon.

(2) Continue to the right and walk along the tram tracks, Place Notre-Dame and the cathedral.

(3) Go around it on the left, passing through the garden. At the exit, turn right at each fork and return to Place Notre-Dame at the end of Rue Bayard.

(3) Pass by the Fontaine des Trois Ordres fountain and continue along Rue Barnave until you reach Place aux Herbes. Turn left and follow Rue du Palais to Place Saint-André.

(4) Turn left onto Rue d'Agier, the alleyway to the left of the church, continue straight ahead and enter the Jardin de Ville.

(5) Exit the garden at the kiosk and continue straight ahead. Cross Square du Docteur Valois, then turn left onto Rue de Belgrade. At the end, turn right onto Boulevard Édouard Rey, then left onto Rue Émile Augier. You can stroll through the Haussmann-style alleys.

(6) At Boulevard Gambetta, continue to the right, cross the bridge over the Isère (Pont de la Porte de France) and arrive at the Jardin des Dauphins (S/E).

You can also take a detour to Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, where the Swiss philosopher lived in 1768, but also where the famous Romantic writer Henri Beyle (Stendhal) was born (at No. 14) on 23 January 1783.

• Jardin Des Dauphins: in 1785, Jean Baptiste Dolle (a wealthy Grenoble resident) bought the future Jardin Des Dauphins for 2,400 livres (approximately €25,000). He began by reinforcing the Lesdiuières enclosure (built in the early 16th century) and had a château called the "Roman house" built. He hired the king's engineer and geographer Louis Leseurre to create a garden with six terraces, home to numerous species of trees and vines. He turned it into a place for meetings and private receptions, before having to bequeath all his property to the Nation following the Revolution and the Reign of Terror. He went into exile in Saint-Domingue. At the beginning of the 19th century, Charles Renauldon (former mayor of Grenoble) bought the garden to set up a stone quarry and then a cartridge factory, which he placed under the direction of General Haxo. On 12 August 1901, the municipality became the owner of part of the Bastille military arsenals and the garden, before the Grenoble and Dauphiné Tourist Office turned it into an attractive tourist garden in 1908. After being neglected for a time, it was after the Second World War that the municipality turned it into the garden we know today, which is unique in that it is hometo spontaneous Mediterranean species such as the holm oak. The Jardin des Dauphins is home to the northernmost Mediterranean ecological stations in France. This unique climate allows the garden to be filled with exotic plants that could not survive outdoors elsewhere in the city. https://www.grenoble-patrimoine.fr/element/366/585-histoire-detaillee-le-jardin-des-dauphins.htm
  
• Quai de France-Perrier-Mounier-Xavier Jouvin
  
• Saint-Laurent district: the only district located on the right bank of the Isère, nicknamed Little Italy because of its colourful façades and because it was long home to Grenoble's Italian community, which is why there are so many cafés and pizzerias along the quays... But it is also through this neighbourhood that you can access the Musée Dauphinois by climbing up from the Fontaine au Lion, the Archaeological Museum (built on the remains of the old church), the Casemate (the first association created in France to promote and disseminate scientific culture), and it is also here that an antique market has been held for 40 years, making this neighbourhood unique in Grenoble. https://vivre-a-grenoble.fr/quartiers/quartier-saint-laurent/
  
• Albert Michaillon Park: unique in Europe, the Albert Michaillon Sculpture Park is a natural extension of the painting museum, punctuated by some twenty works that punctuate this 16,000 m² enclosed space, magnificently planted with large trees and rare species, bordering the fortifications dating from 1870. To the north, the former moat is adorned with beautiful specimens of pine, ginkgo and a 170-year-old Lebanese cedar.
  
• Place Notre-Dame: this lively square is home to Notre-Dame Cathedral and its 13th-century bell tower, the 13th-century Church of Saint-Hugues and the 4th-6th-century baptistery, the remains of which can be seen from the Musée de l'Ancien Eveché. The Fountain of the Three Orders (1897) commemorates the pre-revolutionary events of 1788 (Journée des Tuiles) that paved the way for the Revolution. Notre-Dame Cathedral in Grenoble is one of six elements of a cathedral complex that also includes the parish church of Saint-Hugues, the bishop's house, the baptistery, the cloister and the canonical houses. "There is only one door to pass through, just one: beyond it lies the ocean of God's love" (J. Gerin, parish priest of the cathedral from 1735 to 1763, on the subject of death).
  http://www.cathedraledegrenoble.com/-Patrimoine-
• Place Saint-André: the seat of power in the Dauphiné region, it is bordered by the former parliament building of the Dauphiné with its Gothic and Renaissance façades. The Café de la Table Ronde is the second oldest café in France (1739). A jewel of Grenoble's architectural heritage, the former parliament building was the seat of justice in Grenoble for half a century. Parliament of the Dauphiné and seat of the Chamber of Accounts until 1790, it was then the Palais de Justice from 1800 to 2002. Antoine Berthet, who was tried here, inspired Stendhal's character Julien Sorel (Le Rouge et le Noir). The square probably takes its name from the church dedicated to its patron saint, which the Dauphin Guigues VI André had built there at the beginning of the 13th century. The Collegiate Church of Saint-André, adjoining his palace, was originally intended to serve as a private chapel and burial place for the Dauphins, whose tombs were destroyed in 1562 by the Huguenots under the orders of the Baron des Adrets. The bell of Saint-André Church rang the sing (signum or signal) every evening at 10 p.m., warning the inhabitants that the city gates were about to close, a custom that continued until 1877. The square is also a place of entertainment, particularly since the construction of the municipal theatre (1890) and the organisation by the Cinémathèque of the open-air short film festival (since 1977). https://www.grenoble-patrimoine.fr/element/79/595-place-saint-andre.htm
  
• Jardin de Ville: formerly the Jardin des Lesdiguières, it became a public garden in 1719 and is a lively place. The former Hôtel des Lesdisguières, built between 1600 and 1650, was the town hall from 1719 to 1967 and now houses the Maison Internationale.
• Haussmannian Quarter: this Haussmann-inspired quarter was built between 1886 and 1910 on the site of the western fortifications and the former grassy glacis that bordered them. It features beautiful bourgeois buildings with elegant stone or moulded cement façades for the more recent buildings, decorated with ironwork.

You can take a detour via Place Sainte-Claire and Rue Jean Jacques Rousseau, where the Swiss philosopher lived in 1768, but also the birthplace (at No. 14) of the famous Romantic writer Henri Beyle (Stendhal) on 23 January 1783.