We have tested for you the permanent Bastille's positionning route

By  Céline and Stéphanie / Acess the whole set of articles "We've tested for you"

This time of the year is, for sure the best time to discover the slopes of the « Bastille ». Fresh air and vivid colors are incredible as view points on the town and the mountain ranges. We’ve been tempted recently by the permanent positioning courses along the fortress’ path. Celine and I finally decided to go for the course from “La Porte Saint Laurent”. We went to the tourist agency before, to pick up the map which is really useful to get oriented.

But, first of all, what’s a positioning route? It is really easy: the goal is to get oriented thanks to natural and artificial elements such as isolated trees, banks, panels, rocks etc; in order to find beacons. There are symbolized by red circles on the map to follow a very precise itinerary. Each time, one found a beacon; the map is stamped by red pliers that you can find built in a wood pole. The purpose is here to find every beacon and to stamp them on the map

For each positioning course-there are four on the Bastille area-it is required to join the starting point (marked by a red triangle).

This is how we reached the station of the cable car “Grenoble-Bastille”, starting point of the positioning course of “Porte Saint Laurent”. Sun and blue sky was there, as fall colors: a perfect setting for the activity of the day. While looking at the map, we noticed the fact that the way to go to the first beacon was on the opposite side of the Isere river, on the “Cymaise” square. Here you can find the lion and snake fountain, surrounded by terraces that gave us (already) the feeling to take a pleasant break. But we got a mission to complete: find the seven beacons of our positioning course. And here was the first one. Our first punch was done!

Then, we carried on the « Saint Laurent » street with beautiful restored facades until the Door, named the same way. The second beacon was just close to us, at the entrance of the doorway of the Museum. Result: second punch done. And from there, we took the path going up to the fort’s summit to find the missing beacons. Along the route, we were able to learn a little bit more on the stones forming the rocky spur of the “Bastille”. We observed the town from above, took time to notice corresponding streets, building’s rooftops, the different peaks, etc. We had to admit that the panoramic view was perfectly done for that. And punchs went on until the last one.

Finally, we ended our « race » along the age-old walls of the Dauphinois Museum, town at our feet; then we went down following the path of the “Montée Chalemont” before finding back the lion and snake fountain. This is how, the loop was completed, the map entirely stamped and the positioning route was a success!

This is a very simple activity that can be done in family or friends, just need to take comfortable shoes to walk and maybe a bottle of water!