Grenoble-Bastille Cable Car

The Grenoble-Bastille cable car (French: Téléphérique de Grenoble Bastille), also affectionately known as Les bulles (English: the bubbles), is a cable car in the French city of Grenoble. It links the city centre with the Bastille, a former fortress overlooking the city.

The line was inaugurated on 29 September 1934.

In 1934 cable cars were no longer an innovation. The cable car at the Aiguille du Midi had been in existence for ten years, the one at Salève for two; by that time Europe had a sizeable number. Even in Grenoble, a cable transportation system existed between Mount Jalla and the area of Porte de France since 1875, used to transport limestone from the quarries to the cement industry.

In Grenoble, the desire for openness and expansion of the city led to its mayor at the time, Paul Mistral, to successfully organize the Exposition internationale de la houille blanche (International exposition of white coal) in 1925, and subsequently to acquire land for the city's future airport. In 1930 together with the vice-chairman of the chamber of tourism, Paul Michoud, he planned the world's first urban cable car in the city. The site of the Bastille overlooking the Grenoble area was naturally chosen to become a tourist attraction. The site, fortified a century earlier by General Haxo, had a natural promontory offering a 360° panoramic view.

The architect, Jean Benoit, designed the stations. The work was entrusted to the Franco-German consortium Bleichert, Neyret-Beylié, Para and Milliat. The choice of the location of upper station was not a problem, it had to be close to the barracks of the dungeon, which was transformed into a restaurant. The site of the lower station was between the Jardin des dauphins and the Jardin de ville. It was finally decided that the lower station would be placed near the Jardin de ville, on the banks of the Isère. Its architectural design took elements of the Tour de l'Isle on the opposite bank, and a covered bridge was constructed across the road. In 1959, a circular extension was added to the lower station, and was used as a waiting room with a capacity of one hundred people.

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