Grenoble-Bastille cable car
cable car from Grenoble city to Bastille
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.
In July 2017, the metropolis of Grenoble installed a webcam on the roof of the upper station of the cable car, offering Internet users a 220° panoramic photograph of the city every 20 minutes, with several definitions of images. Thanks to the archiving of these photographs that have been available since July 13, 2017, visitors to the terrace of the Geologists and the belvedere Vauban can see each other in the photos.
History
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, and 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 its mayor at the time, Paul Mistral, to successfully organize the Exposition internationale de la houille blanche (International exposition of hydropower also known as "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.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Grenoble-Bastille cable car” as cable car from Grenoble city to Bastille. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as cable car from Grenoble city to Bastille. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1545706. Authority coordinates are 45.193, 5.726. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2017, 1934, 1875 and 1925.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
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Three-step research path
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- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Grenoble-Bastille cable car” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.