Isère

Isère is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of France. Isère is the third-largest ski and winter destination in France, after Savoie and Haute-Savoie. It also hosts Coupe Icare, an annual festival of free flight, such as paragliding and hang-gliding, held at the world-renowned paragliding site at Lumbin. Grenoble has a dozen museums, and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), an international research facility in Grenoble, that is open to visitors.

• 🌍 Grenoble — calls itself "the capital of the Alps"; its Bastille is an ancient series of fortifications on the mountainside that provide a good vantage point over the town and the surrounding mountains
• 🌍 Voiron — renowned for the Chartreuse cellars, and the Bonnat, Radiall and Antésite chocolate factories

• 🌍 Chartreuse — home of the Grande Chartreuse monastery
• 🌍 Les Deux Alpes — a ski area with a variety of pistes suitable for all levels of skier
• 🌍 Alpe d'Huez — a popular resort for skiing and cycling fans

• 🌍 Grenoble Isère International Airport (GNB ^IATA). 

The Grande Chartreuse is the mother abbey of the Carthusian order. It is located near Voiron 14 miles north of Grenoble and can be visited. Monks at the abbey distil a beverage rich in alcohol called "the chartreuse" and made of several hundred of plants picked in the mountain.

• Many ski resorts, including the Alpe d'Huez and Les Deux Alpes
• The Coupe Icare. An annual festival of free flight, such as paragliding and hang-gliding, held at the world-renowned paragliding site at Lumbin in early autumn. 

Isère produces the following cheeses: Bleu du Vercours-Sassenage and Saint-Marcellin.

• GR 65 leads from Geneva via La Côte-Saint-André, Isère, to Le Puy-en-Velay and further on to Spain, as part of the Way of St. James to Santiago de Compostella.

Neighboring departments:

• Ain to the north
• Ardèche and Drôme to the southwest
• Loire to the west
• Rhône to the northwest
• Savoie to the northeast
• Hautes-Alpes to the south