Didcot–Meylan Twinning Association

VISIT TO MEYLAN 22-25 SEPTEMBER, 2005.

Les caves de Chartreuse, Voiron.

Our flight from Luton arrived at Grenoble St Geoirs early Thursday afternoon and our hosts had thoughtfully organised a visit to the Chartreuse distillery at Voiron en route to our official welcome in Meylan.

I knew that the famous Chartreuse liqueur was created by Carthusian monks but I had never realised how great was the secrecy surrounding the precise combination of ingredients that gives the liqueur its distinctive flavour, nor the lengths to which the makers have gone over the centuries in order to preserve that secret. From small beginnings in the early 17^th century, when the monks were known for their herbal remedies, the recipe was refined over the next century and it has remained the same since 1737. However, its history has been intertwined with major religious, political and social events in France. For a short time in the 20^th century, the community of monks was even expelled from France and relocated at Tarragona in Spain. However, today Chartreuse liqueur is known and enjoyed world-wide.

Our tour of the distillery took us through the various stages of processing and refinement and was interspersed with short films describing the sometimes turbulent history of the monastery. Finally, we were invited to partake of a dégustation, from a selection of green or yellow Chartreuse or one of the other fruit liqueurs made on the premises and everyone appeared to enjoy their choice. Most of us were then tempted to buy a souvenir of our visit from the adjoining shop before returning to the coach and continuing our journey to Meylan.

Tour of Old Grenoble, Friday 23 September.

How old is Grenoble? It is reported to have been founded approximately 3 centuries BC and named Cularo by the Romans, who decided the site by the river Isère was ideally placed between Rome and Vienne, then the capital city of the Allobroges tribe. Parts of the elliptical Roman wall round the city can still be seen and the outline of the rest is marked by metal studs in the ground. Over the centuries the city has grown enormously but evidence of its long history has been preserved and, despite the modern developments all around, much of its character is retained in its squares, churches and houses, several of which we were able to see in our morning tour. We were also privileged to see behind the facades of a few buildings and to glimpse courtyards and ornate staircases that hinted at an opulent past.

Grenoble appears to have had a love-hate relationship with the author Stendhal, one of its more famous sons, who was born in the city but turned his back on it in his late teens, preferring the heady delights of Paris. Nevertheless, both his birthplace and his grandfather’s home, where he spent much of his youth, are acknowledged and preserved. There is also a Musée Stendhal. The philosopher, Jean Jaques Rousseau, only visited Grenoble for a month in 1768 but his house is also identified.

More prosaically, Grenoble is home to the second oldest cement factory in France (since 1842) and there is ample evidence in the city of its use for both functional and decorative purposes. Thus, from Roman beginnings to the present day, Grenoble has made good use of its ambient resources and is proud to show them to visitors.

Grenoble is in the province of Dauphinée and the symbol of the city is a dolphin – a simple connection, one would expect. However, the real story is much more complicated. Dauphinée is derived from the Allobroges word for the flower delphinium and the region was independent of France until 1349. In the Middle Ages, Grenoble was home to the counts of Albon, who founded the dynasty of Princes Dauphin. In the 15^th century Dauphinée was governed by the future King Louis XII and the tradition developed of naming the heir to the French throne, the Dauphin. Almost incidentally, it appears, one Countess of Albon nicknamed her son ‘dolphin’ and the similarity of the name to Dauphin has resulted in the subsequent adoption of the dolphin as the symbol of the city, to the undoubted confusion of many visitors.

Le Musée des Automates, Friday, 23 September.

Having visited an exhibition of automates in Lille a few years ago, which was informative but unexciting, I was totally unprepared for the stunning array, lovingly and theatrically displayed by the museum owner. The entrance to the small museum could easily be missed in a crowded street, but the interior is crammed with automata representing over two hundred years of invention, and presented as a memory to a former Grenoblois, Jaques de Vaucanson, who was one of the early inventors of animated objects. We were treated to carousels, fairground organs, whistling birds, musical boxes, pianolas and an amazing variety of mechanical figures, and were encouraged to press buttons and turn handles ourselves, thus reawakening childhood delights. Several of the figures were unobtrusively linked so that when one was activated, others would start to move and it was hard to know where to look. Although the objects themselves were fascinating, much of our enjoyment of the visit stemmed from the enthusiasm and showmanship of the owner who clearly took delight in challenging our eyes and imaginations with one surprise after another.

(Janet Cockburn, October 05)