Sassenage, On the Edge of a Nuclear City (Grenoble)

Zagan the motorhome’s in the motorhome aire at Sassenage, just at the point where the Drac and Isère rivers merge at the northern end of the mountain city of Grenoble (N45.21352, E5.66870). The aire’s about 4 miles from the centre of Grenoble, but is probably the closest official motorhome aire for the city and there are cycle paths from here.

It’s surrounded by trees, and along with mist and low clouds the vertical rock faces which form the valley we are in are mainly hidden. They’re most certainly there though. A break in the mist yesterday opened up a vista of one of Grenoble’s snow-capped massifs: proper mountains! Real, enormous, scary, exciting, hulking great things!

We’ve used this aire before, as it’s just off the toll-free section of the A51, and has free services, but it’s always looked a little grubby, and last night was the first time we’ve stayed. It’s proved a nice spot for a night.

The official motorhome aire at Sassenage (Grenoble)

After each of us stretching our legs up at Lans-en-Vercours (kudos to Ju for knocking out a 12Km run!), we were ready to roll out of the Vercors and into the big mountains to the east of Grenoble. A plan was hatched: head to the launderette in the village and wash **everything**, then head down to Sassenage to service the van, then hit the Lidl in Echirolles (another of Grenoble’s satellites), then drive up to a high aire in Chamrousse. With the washing done, and just a few semi-damp things hanging around the van to finish off, we rolled down the D531 along the Gorge d’Engins, which proved an easy wide road with glimpses out across the city at the eastern end.

Heading through roadworks in the Gorges d’Engins

Views of northern Grenoble from the hairpins of the D531

Down into the aire’s borne, we serviced the van as quickly as we could, urged on by booms of thunder coming from the hills we’ve just left. Deciding it was about to boot it down on us, we rolled into the aire for lunch, and didn’t manage to roll off again! The rain came but was brief, so I took a chance to go have a quick cycle and look-see at my one-time home, having lived at 12 Rue Barnave in central Grenoble as a post-grad student at the tender age of 22.

Grenoble

Grenoble’s an interesting city to me. It’s centre has wide, Paris-style boulevards, with boutique shops, cute little squares surrounded by cafes, a cutting-edge tram network, expensive apartments, stacks of sports facilities (including quick access to the slopes or the Med), and all the trimmings you might expect of a modern city. It has an edgy side to it too. A troupe of tramps would hang about outside my flat door each evening begging for money, and as I cycled out of the city yesterday I was astounded to see a small community of beat up wheel-less caravans in trees a couple of minutes from where the photo below was taken. A fire burned in an old car wheel, a post-Apocalypse sight in a 21st century city.

Grenoble

Rich-poor divide aside, the city struck me all those years ago as being very strange for something else. The reason I was here was to work at a nuclear facility practically in the city centre. The ILL it’s called, and its reactor generates neutrons which are skilfully guided through materials of various kinds to help build an idea of what’s happening inside them. My job was to use this kind of set-up to peer deep inside the thick metal of railway tracks, to try and understand the stresses and strains inside. Other researchers could suss the complex chemistry in biological samples. But back to the original point: there’s a nuclear reactor in town folks: and no-one’s batting an eyelid. Since I was here they’ve built a load of office apartments on the approach to the reactor too, and are currently building more. Is any of this imaginable in the UK?

The ILL: a nuclear reactor a stones-throw from a city centre

My time here was short-lived, and the reactor wasn’t even generating back then, as a fault had been discovered and it needed refitting. The office I had was up against the side of the domed reactor building above, and it was great to see the place again, to remember sending emails on a green-screen computer, of being issued my dosimeter badge, of peering down into the reactor core, of looking down on the city lights from a colleague’s villa high in the hills, all fascinating stuff. I wonder how life would have worked out if I’d stayed and become Dr Buckley, Nuclear Scientist, rather than heading off into the world of work? I’ll never know, but I’m very happy with the way things HAVE worked out! You never know, one day Ju and I might opt to settle in a place like this, we’ll see…

Plenty of graffiti on the concrete roads around Grenoble: some of it’s fantastic.

And one final picture of what I **think** is a kingsnake. If I’m right, it’s not dangerous, but you’re dead right I took a step backwards when I first spotted it at the edge of a path near the aire!

Right, best be off. It’s been lashing it down all night but has finally stopped; Lidl and a winding road up to 1600m Chamrousse call!

Cheers, Jay