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Drac (river)

Geography of GrenoblePages with French IPARivers of Auvergne-Rhône-AlpesRivers of FranceRivers of Hautes-Alpes
Rivers of IsèreRivers of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'AzurRivers of the AlpsTributaries of the Isère
Esrf grenoble
Esrf grenoble

The Drac (French pronunciation: [dʁak]) is a 130-kilometre (81 mi) long river in southeastern France. It is a left tributary of the river Isère. It is formed at the confluence of the Drac Noir and the Drac Blanc, which both rise in the southern part of the Massif des Écrins, high in the French Alps. It flows through several reservoirs on its course, including the Lac de Monteynard-Avignonet. It flows into the Isère at Grenoble. Its major tributary is the Romanche. The Drac flows through the following departments and towns: Hautes-Alpes: Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur Isère: Corps, GrenobleThe average flow of the Drac at Fontaine is 97 cubic metres per second (3,400 cu ft/s), with the highest monthly flows occurring in June, due to the melting of Alpine glaciers. The catchment area of the river is 3,599 square kilometres (1,390 sq mi), which has an average rainfall of 859 millimetres (33.8 in).The name Drac, originally the Drau, is due to an attraction by the Occitan drac "imp", which is derived from the Latin dracō, meaning "Dragon". It is documented in the forms of Dracum (v. 1100), Dravus (1289) and the ribière dou Drau (1545). The word "Drac" means Dragon. In many legends the drac, in Occitan, is a genius of evil waters or a form of Satan that attracts children to drown. Frédéric Mistral wrote in Félibrige Treasury: Drac of the Rhone was a winged monster and amphibian which carried on the body of a reptile the shoulders and the head of a beautiful young man. He lived the bottom of the river where he tried to attract, to devour it, the imprudent ones gained by the softness of its voice. In December 1995, six children and their teacher were drowned in the river after the level of water rose due to the opening of the valves of a dam. They were there to see beavers. All of them died.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Drac (river) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Drac (river)
Voie Verte, Grenoble

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N 45.215277777778 ° E 5.6752777777778 °
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Voie Verte

Voie Verte
38360 Grenoble
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
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Minatec
Minatec

Minatec (initially called the Micro and Nanotechnology Innovation Centre) is a research complex specializing in micro/nano technologies in Grenoble, France. The center was inaugurated in June 2006 by François Loos, French Minister Delegate for Industry, as a partnership between LETI (the Electronics and Information Technologies Laboratory of CEA, the French Atomic Energy Commission) and by Grenoble Institute of Technology (Université Grenoble Alpes). The site was already home to LETI, Europe's top center for applied research in microelectronics and nanotechnology. Minatec combines a physical research campus with a network of companies, researchers, and engineering schools. It was launched to foster technology transfer, with applications in energy and communications. The complex is home to 3,000 researchers, 1,200 students, and 600 technology transfer experts on a 20-hectare campus offering 10,000 square meters for cleanroom space. It offers a continuum that includes student technology transfer, industry, and applied research. The Minatec campus has dedicated special-events facilities (900 m²), including a 20-person conference rooms and a 400-seat amphitheater. These spaces are available to researchers for their scientific events such as the international conference held every two years.Minatec includes fundamental research labs like INAC and FMNT, plus a major technological research lab, Leti. MINATEC also cooperates with the INSTITUT NÉEL and RTRA, which are located nearby.

Néron (Isère)
Néron (Isère)

The Néron is a mountain in the French department of Isère at 1,299 metres in the Chartreuse massif in the Alps. Sometimes called Casque du Néron in the 19th century because of its shape, its name literally means "the black one" and has no connection with the Roman emperor or with the existence of an ancient station used as a lookout and refuge in its southern part. The mountain is shaped like an inverted ship's hull with a very pronounced north–south oriented main ridge and is mainly composed of Urgonian limestone. Due to its exposure, it has a Mediterranean flora, although this has been weakened by the fire in the summer of 2003, which destroyed the entire upper part of the mountain. The mountain is also part of the Chartreuse regional nature park. The southern end of the Néron is occupied by a cave called Balme de l'Hermitage. The site, occupied since the Neolithic period, was home to a luxurious villa from the Middle Ages onwards, transformed into a castle, which passed in turn into the hands of rich families and religious orders. At that time, the forests on the mountain slopes were intensively exploited to supply charcoal to the foundries and were largely replaced by vineyards. Thus, in the 19th century, the first scientific and military explorers used some of the steep paths made by the loggers. The Néron appeared in Joanne Guides, but the number of victims increased rapidly and it acquired a bad reputation. The first complete crossing from north to south was carried out in 1884 in order to evaluate the possibility of establishing military batteries on the summit of the mountain. Finally, the construction of a road was started in 1891 to lead to the location of the batteries, which were completed two years later to the north of the mountain, upstream of the Vence gorges. At the same time, exploration of the Néron led to the discovery of the ancient Roman pathway and the remains of the ten-metre long ancient footbridge in the south-eastern escarpments. Subsequently, a series of archaeological excavations led by Hippolyte Müller uncovered the cistern of the former lookout and a number of artefacts. New accidents led to the creation of the Dauphinois mountain rescue committee, the beaconing of trails, the laying of cables, and, in 1911, the inauguration of a new footbridge. The Roman path became the main route of the Néron, replacing the unstable corridors of the eastern face and the steep paths of the western slope. The Boujard inn, in the hamlet of l'Hermitage, flourished in the first half of the 20th century. However, the château de la Balme was burnt down in 1932 and abandoned for good. After the Second World War, with the exception of the opening of a few climbing routes around the 1970s and the chronicles generated by a work representing Lucky Luke on one of the summits overlooking the Grenoble area, the Néron lost much of its appeal; municipal by-laws regularly forbade access to it because of rock falls and the dropping of most of the paths.