Musee Dauphinois

While Andy was off snow shoeing with his work colleagues, the girls and I wandered the short distance to the Musee Dauphinois. Housed within the Sainte Marie d'en Haut convent - the historic 17th century building. Originally a convent then a prison, religious boarding school, barracks and immigrant housing before it was renovated, restored and converted to the Musee Dauphinois for the 1968 Winter Olympics.

 

 

The musée is divided into four floors housing both permanent and temporary exhibitions. The first floor is dedicated to the X Winter Olympics, in 1968. Described as the Olympic Games that changed the Isere, these games allowed Grenoble to improve its infrastructure both in the city and surrounding areas as well as promote the development of winter sports in Isere helped by the famous triple gold medal performance of Frenchman Jean-Claude Killy.

 

The second floor commemorates the 160th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between France and Japan. The exhibition was in French, so we understood very little however, it explored the relationship between Japan and the West from the first meeting in 1543 to the present day. We particularly liked the darkened room filled with hanging lantern depicting various scenes.

Another floor up, we were transported to pioneering life in the alpine mountains, exploring all aspects of life with the challenges that altitude, slope, isolation and cold climate brings. Interesting.

 

Finally on the fourth floor, we entered the long term exhibition, Le Reve Blanc - The White Dream. Here we are taken through the evolution of alpine recreation. From the late 19th century, the French alpine mountains began to lose their hostility as the pleasure of skiing gained momentum. However the real rush for white gold occurred in the mid 20th century when companies like Fiat built Sestriere, the first single purpose ski resort. Post WWII economic growth, legislation changes that increased annual leave allowance and advantages in technology enabled skiing to morph from an activity for the wealthy to a recreation for the all. We perused many old photos, a full display of skis from over the years plus a very old cable car!