About Grenoble

Grenoble ( grə-NOH-bəl, French: [ɡʁənɔbl] (listen); Arpitan: Grenoblo or Grainóvol; Occitan: Graçanòbol) is the prefecture and largest city of the Isère department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It was the capital of the Dauphiné historical province and lies where the Drac River merges into the Isère River at the foot of the French Alps. The population of the commune of Grenoble was 157,650 as of 2018, while the population of the Grenoble metropolitan area (French: aire d'attraction de Grenoble or agglomération grenobloise) was 714,799 which makes it the largest metropolis in the Alps, ahead of Innsbruck and Bolzano. A significant European scientific centre, the city advertises itself as the "Capital of the Alps", due to its size and its proximity to the mountains. The many suburban communes that make up the rest of the metropolitan area include four with populations exceeding 20,000: Saint-Martin-d'Hères, Échirolles, Fontaine and Voiron.Grenoble's history goes back over 2,000 years, to a time when it was a village of the Allobroges Gallic tribe.