| VanSims29. 08. 2013 20:25:56 |
After conquering Triglav and returning to Vrata around 12pm (Mon. 12.8.) I drove to Austria, where towards evening I planned to climb a local ferrata called Zahme Gams in the village of Weissbach bei Lofer near Zell am See. But just as I arrived at the wall around 6-7pm, it poured rain. I slept right in the parking lot in Weissbach village but in the morning it rained again. I had no choice but to continue to France according to my plans. I climbed the ferrata on the way back and report follows. So I drive through Tyrol, Arlberg (over the pass to avoid toll  ), Switzerland (past Zurich, Bern, Lausanne and Geneva) to France namely to Grenoble.
Grenoble is the main cultural and economic center of the French Alpine region Dauphiné, which lies south of the Savoy Alps. Actually it's already the south, almost Mediterranean, at least judging by mentality since from ca. 12pm to 4pm I vainly searched for something open to eat. Everything closed, siesta, evening open again.  The landscape is still purely alpine.
After tourist sightseeing of Grenoble (actually nothing very interesting to see) I ascend by cable car to the citadel. Forgive me as I went down on foot. From the citadel there is a nice view on one side to Vercors range (south, limestone), on the other side to Belledonne chain (east, gneiss and granite). North of the city the Chartreuse massif rises, which the citadel hill somehow begins.
Tourist attraction which the French treated themselves to is building an adventure park on the Grenoble citadel itself or its walls. At home (and many other places) they wouldn't get cultural-monument protection permission under any circumstances. Of course I had to try it. Adventure park as such, entry 20 EUR but limited so you can do each path only once. Don't know how it is at home, say in Tscheppaschlucht on Austrian side of Ljubelj you pay approx. that and have unlimited climbing all day. But something interesting about the equipment of this park: they have special self-belay kits with carabiners made so you can't unclip both. If you unclip one from the rope you can't the other. Only at the end of each path is a rope hanging in air so you can unclip both. Very interesting! 
Second day I visited another adventure park some 30-40 km out of Grenoble. Here safety was completely inadequate. First, kits equipped with some old carabiners that clipped a bit harder and if not careful, they were half open. Second, no helmets in equipment!  Third: at zipline they taught clipping carabiner directly to pulley (protected only by it) instead of wire (triple protected). And if pulley comes off... bye bye!
After visiting this park (again limit to two hours - no more French adventure parks for me) I went back to Grenoble and visited Dauphiné region museum, where life in mountains of this rugged landscape was shown, history, geology, livestock, alpine pasturing,... and how they try today to revive these already extinct traditions. What surprised me most was that in skiing history section they displayed replica of blocky skis!  With full explanation that these were probably first skis in Alps area, that Valvasor first described them,... Very interesting!
Towards evening I visited village Lance-en-Vercors, some 20 km from Grenoble in Vercors massif, known as winter ski resort but different from commercialized jet set resorts ala Tignes, Trois Vallées in Savoy Alps or Les 2 Alpes here in Dauphiné. It's a calm ski resort, outside French school holidays you should always get accommodation, family friendly,... at least that's what my indeed old Lonely Planet for France writes. Possible that something changed in meantime. Lonely Planet namely says that information even in few years old guides not necessarily holds because 'Good places go bad and bad places go bankrupt!' 
Next day I drove to Le Bourg-d'Oisans, main starting point for tours in national park Parc des Écrins.
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