Berlioz’s Birthplace – La Côte Saint-André
The town and surroundings
In the opening chapter of his Memoirs, Berlioz described the scenic surroundings of his home town:
"As the name indicates, La Côte-Saint-André is built on the slope of a hill, and dominates a fairly wide plain – a rich, golden and lush expanse of land, whose silence conveys a sense of dreamy grandeur, further enhanced by the surrounding chain of mountains to the south and east, behind which rise in the distance, laden with glaciers, the gigantic peaks of the Alps."
Unless otherwise specified, all the photographs reproduced on this page were taken by Michel Austin
in April 1998; other pictures have been scanned from postcards and engravings in
our own collection. © Monir Tayeb and Michel Austin.
All rights of reproduction reserved.
The Isère valley in the 19th century
This steel engraving by Thomas Allom shows the Isère valley
between Voirons and Voireppe; it is in our collection.
A view of La Côte
Saint-André from the valley,
looking towards the hill which overlooks the town
The following are a few views of La Côte
Saint-André from the hill which overlooks it.
The Plain of Bièvre can be seen in the distance in this picture.
The tree-lined
road on the top-left corner of this picture is Avenue Hector
Berlioz.
This picture, scanned
from an early 20th century postcard in our collection, shows a
similar view
photographed almost a hundred years ago.
This picture, taken by our friend Pepijn van Doesburg on an
afternoon in 2003, shows a view of the town and the Plain of Bièvre from the
north, with very clear air but a thunderstorm approaching from the west. Across
the plain behind the first row of hills, one can see the Vercors mountains.
La Côte Saint-André – old Railway Station
Souvenirs from La Côte Saint-André
© 1998-2008 (unless otherwise stated) Michel Austin and Monir Tayeb for all the pictures and information on this page.
Copyright notice: The texts, photos, images and musical scores on all pages of this site are covered by UK Law and International Law. All rights of publication or reproduction of this material in any form, including Web page use, are reserved. Their use without our explicit permission is illegal.
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