Local history and culture Rhônes-Alpes

A symbol of the city, the Grenoble are used to preaching the merits of the "eggs" that take you to the summit of the Bastille. However, we often forget that we can climb this mountain on foot in 1 h from the Porte de France. A pleasant walk, certainly sloping, but offering a breathtaking view on arrival: on the left of the mountains, in front of the mountains, and to the right still mountains! You can know it by heart, the view always leaves speechless. A trick, make it at dusk, because the view on the illuminated city in the night is even more striking!

At the crossing of roads, in an unexpected place, one discovers with interest a miniature ardéchois village built by a mason to the F. Vallon stone-Lover retreat. Adopting the traditional construction technique «opus incertum» with the irregular blocks enchassant without leaving a vacuum, it erected a small village on these heights that deserves a curious visit.

Cross the Bresse from north to south through two tourist routes of 100 km each. Cheminez through the bocage in search of the strange sarrasines chimneys and traces of more than half a millennium of civilization between the th Century Romanesque churches, a th century feudal castle and its th square tower, pigeonholes, poypes, etc. On the road, many gastronomic and cultural breaks await you.

Passing travellers to Villeneuve-de-Berg are already in a glowing hamlet called «Les Mines», often without knowing what history this curious quarter of Saint-Priest was attached. A story that marked very much its red footprint - the colour of iron ore - the entire Privas region in the th century, the "industrial" history that was quickly wanted to erase memories and landscape. It was in 1843 that the first concession of the Privas basin was used on a deposit of high-quality iron ore which allowed local and regional industry to develop through the transformation of this raw material, which was not found in Saint-Etienne or Alès - coal. At that time, we are fighting for the best concessions, including the one in Saint-priest that came into operation in 1849. A particularly extensive concession where almost 500 miners and workers were employed to extract nearly 4 million tons of iron ore through a century of exploitation. Iron ore, channelled to the Pouzin blast furnace, then crossed Privas into more smashing the road - think that diligence took twelve hours to connect Le Pouzin to the Prefecture! For this reason, the Paris-Lyon-Marseille company was awarded a concession to build the first railway of the Ardèche linking the Valley of the Rhone to Saint-Priest. But depletion of the deposit, competition from open skies in Africa and the disastrous «tourism» image of its mines inevitably lead to their final closure in 1950. With a strong emphasis on the landscape with quarries of marne used to backfill galleries, leaving a gigantic built heritage, wells, chevalements, factories and an important cultural heritage - preserved until now at the Ardéchoise Earth Museum - mines still seem to have never existed! And you must venture through abundant vegetation or along the old track dismantled to discover the deposits of the past, such as this impressive mine sink No. 9 classified historic monument and completely submerged in trees. To discover this exciting history, the basement of the region and the sites of exploitation, you will be contacted with interest the Geological Society of the Ardèche which has its headquarters in Saint-Priest.

How to enhance the heritage of a city while offering families fun together? We search for, we solve riddles, we eat good local products, we approach a territory differently. Two circuits exist today: On the diois sheep track and travel in the heart of Die.

On the track of the Croq'Images. Pleasant and fun walk to discover Saint-Geoire otherwise. Conduct your inquiry through the smart discovery kit (game cards, explanations, illustrated plan…). On the way for an unexpected half day!

8 km from Villard, on the road of Bois Bearded, you can find the ruins of Valchevrière. On 23 July 1944, the Germans completely destroyed this village, with the exception of the chapel. It is a pilgrimage place every first Sunday in September.