Grenoble is the capital of the French Alps in everything but title, a big, studenty, slightly industrial city set in a flat basin where three valleys meet, the Isère, the Drac and the Grésivaudan. The mountains here are not a backdrop but a wall: the Vercors on one side, Chartreuse on another, Belledonne on the third, so that wherever you look in the city there is rock rising above the rooftops. It is the end of the Route Napoléon in this case, the road Napoleon took in March 1815 when he landed from Elba and marched north to reclaim power, and the story goes that the people of Grenoble opened the gates to him and the army simply melted into his ranks.
Arriving from Sisteron by that route is the best part of the day. The road comes down through the Alpine foothills, over the Col Bayard near Gap and then down the Valbonnais and the Matheysine, a landscape of plateaus and lakes and quiet farms, before you reach the Drac and the first of the city's outskirts. The final miles are far less romantic: ring roads, dual carriageways and a lot of cars. Grenoble has a reputation for traffic jams at rush hour and for trams that cross your path without warning, so keep your eyes open and avoid the western ring road on a Friday evening.
For a rider this is a place for services, not for corners. Petrol, food and a bed are all easy here, with a large old town of pedestrian streets and café terraces around the Place Grenette and the Isère quays. The cable-car bubbles to the Bastille fort rise above the river and give the best view of the whole basin, with the Vercors and Belledonne lit up in the late afternoon, though check the opening times of the cable car before planning around it.
Grenoble was also the city of the 1968 Winter Olympics, and bits of that era survive in the concrete architecture and the sports facilities. It has a strong tradition of science and technology, with research institutes and a university that bring in a young, international crowd, and the food scene reflects it, with Savoyard cheese dishes alongside everything else. Walnuts from the surrounding hills are a local pride, and a walnut tart or a gratin dauphinois is a decent excuse for a longer stop than you planned.