Isère is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France.

Cities

• 1 Grenoble
• Voiron

Other destinations

The ruined Château de Certeau in Frontonas

• 1 Chartreuse
• 2 Les Deux Alpes
• 3 Alpe d'Huez

Understand

History

Isère is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution. It was created from part of the former province of Dauphiné.

People

Inhabitants of the department are called Isérois.

Geography

Isère is part of the current region of Rhône-Alpes and is surrounded by the department of Rhône, Ain, Savoie, Hautes-Alpes, Drôme, Ardèche, and Loire.

Isère includes a part of the French Alps. The highest point in the department is the summit of La Meije at 3,987 meters. The Vercors Plateau dominates the west of the department.

Get in

• 1 Grenoble Isère International Airport (GNB ^IATA).  

See

The Grande Chartreuse is the mother abbey of the Carthusian order. It is located near Voiron 14 miles north of Grenoble and can be visited. Monks at the abbey distil a beverage rich in alcohol called "the chartreuse" and made of several hundred of plants picked in the mountain.

Do

• Many ski resorts, including the Alpe d'Huez and Les Deux Alpes
• The Coupe Icare. An annual festival of free flight, such as paragliding and hang-gliding, held at the world-renowned paragliding site at Lumbin in early autumn.  

Eat

Isère produces the following cheeses: Bleu du Vercours-Sassenage and Saint-Marcellin.

Go next

• GR 65 leads from Geneva via La Côte-Saint-André, Isère, to Le Puy-en-Velay and further on to Spain, as part of the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostella.

Neighboring departments:

• Ain to the north
• Ardèche and Drôme to the southwest
• Loire to the west
• Rhône to the northwest
• Savoie to the northeast
• Hautes-Alpes to the south