We were recommended to take a walk up from our campsite ( in Sappey en Chartreuse) to a 19th century fort on top of a near-vertical ridge above Grenoble.
You walk through what is a dinky little ski resort and under a battered looking drag lifts.
When we got up to the ridge , some 350m above the village, it has to be said that the views down over Grenoble were … limited.
More exciting were the piles of hailstones left over from last night’s storm – that’s 15 hours without melting, in late June .
Eventually the clouds parted a bit, and we got some spectacular views over the Isère valley , though the Grenoble conurbation looks rather uninspiring from above. Our campsite manager told us he likes counting the swimming pools he can see from up here – ‘when he were a lad’ there were only about 10, he says, but now all this new money has moved into the area….
The fort itself is rather curious. Built in the mid-1800s to protect both valleys and city, one careless owner ( the French military) allowed it to collapse without ever seeing any action. Donated to the region, it was refurbished in 1990’s, and is now a combination museum & cafe-restaurant, serving very generous helpings of hot chocolate to weary hikers. ( About a 500ml glass of it, in stark contrast to the thimbleful of coffee Lianne received)
Museum-wise, there are some rather random exhibits scattered about – a selection of my faves is as follows :
Back at camp, I checked the propane gas levels and was alarmed to see we seem to have been burning through it at nearly twice the rate I’d estimated, meaning it might only last another 3 or 4 days. We do have small back-up CampingGaz cylinders if that happens, and a full spare back in Holland, but will probably stay on electric hookup from now to try and eke it out. To cut down on cooking, we finished the evening off with a takeaway pizza – luxury !