“L’œil embrasse au matin l’horizon qu’il domine
Et regarde, à travers les branches de noyer,
Les eaux bleuir au loin et la plaine ondoyer.
. . . . . . . . . .
On voit à mille pieds au dessous de leurs branches
La grande plaine bleue avec ses routes blanches
Les moissons jaunes d’or, les bois comme un point noir,
L’Isère renvoyant le ciel comme un miroir.”
Maison des Dauphins, Tour-de-Pin
The very topographical aspect of Dauphiny has bespoken romance and chivalry at all times. The mass of La Grande Chartreuse was dedicated to religious devotion, but those of other mountain chains, and the plains and valleys lying between, were strewn with castle towers and donjons almost to the total exclusion of church spires.
Coming south from Chambéry by the valley of the Graisivaudan, by the side of the rushing waters of the Isère hurrying on its way to join the greater Rhône at Valence, the point of view is manifestly one which suggests feudalism in all its militant glory, rather than the recognition of the fact that it is overshadowed by the height of La Grande Chartreuse, whose influences were wholly dissimilar.
It was the valley of Graisivaudan that Louis XII rather impulsively called the most beautiful garden of France: “charmé par la divinité de ses plantements et les tours en serpentant qu’y fait la rivière Isère.”