Chartreuse Regional Nature Park (Parc Naturel Régional de Chartreuse) straddles the Isère and Savoie départements over an area of 69,000 hectares. The scenery consists of mountains, forests, limestone cliffs, gorges and Alpine meadows, making it paradise for nature lovers. Numerous sporting activities are available there in summer, from walking along the many waymarked footpaths and climbing, to mountain biking and hang gliding. In winter, the family resort of Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse, in the Isère, offers cross-country and downhill skiing, and snowshoeing.

The Chartreuse mountains boast many natural sites worth visiting, in particular Charmant Som summit for its stunning panoramic viewpoint (Belvédère des Sangles), Guiers Mort gorges, Pas du Frou (a dizzyingly high road dominating a precipice), Saint-Même cirque and the quiet and peaceful setting of Grande Chartreuse monastery.

The Park Visitor Centre (Maison du Parc) in Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse has lots of useful information for organising your stay in the Chartreuse mountains.

Founded by St Bruno in 1084, Grande Chartreuse monastery is the head monastery of the Carthusian Order. It stands in the heart of the Chartreuse mountains near the village of Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse in a magnificent, quiet and unspoiled setting.

This haven of peace and tranquillity is only accessible on foot, which takes 30 minutes from La Correrie car park. However, please note that only the surrounding scenery and the buildings' exterior facades can be admired: because the monks in the monastery are vowed to silence and prayer, it is not open to the public.

But you can visit the very interesting Grande Chartreuse museum located 2 km away in the La Correrie buildings, a monastery annex. Through exhibitions and its Gallery of Maps, the museum focuses on the history of the Carthusian Order and the lives of its monks and nuns, as well as Carthusian architecture.

Historical capital of the Savoie, Chambéry is a City of Art and History boasting numerous treasures. The old town is admirably restored and a great place to stroll around, with mysterious lanes and many covered passages, mansions, trompe-l'oeil facades, charming internal courtyards, Saint-François-de-Sales cathedral, a castle – the former residence of the Dukes of the Savoie – pedestrian streets and the famous Elephants fountain.

The visit continues with the Savoie museum, exhibiting archaeological and ethnographical collections, and the Fine art museum home to a large number of Italian paintings. The Saint-Léger square, very lively, is a place not to be missed in the town for a stroll or to relax on a café terrace. The city also offers a large number of cultural events, with the Espace André Malraux cultural centre located in the Curial district, and the Charles Dullin theatre.

For lovers of water sports, Chambéry benefits from the proximity of two natural lakes: the big Bourget lake and the Aiguebelette lake, with an emerald colour.

Nestling in the Épine mountain at the heart of the Savoyard Foreland, at an altitude of 360 metres, Lake Aiguebelette is one of the four great lakes of Savoie Mont-Blanc. This Natura 2000-certified site offers lovers of idyllic landscapes its turquoise water, protected ecosystem and mountainous environment. Containing two small, unspoilt islands, it is one of the warmest lakes in France, with a temperature of up to 28° in summer! This marvellous 545-hectare expanse of water is an ideal place for relaxation and taking it easy, and therefore very inviting for a swim. Bathing is only permitted on supervised beaches during the summer season, and for water sports such as canoeing, stand up paddle or pedalo boating.

Its neighbours in the municipality of Novalaise are an international rowing centre, which hosted the world championships in 1997 and 2015, and some hang-gliding take-off areas. Mountain bike enthusiasts can enjoy their favourite sport on a signposted 150-kilometre network of trails, while cyclists can use the landscaped path around part of the lake. Those who would rather go fishing will be delighted by the presence of many species such as lavaret and Arctic char.

One of France's leading art museums, the Museum of Grenoble exhibits one of the finest collections of early, modern and contemporary art with around 900 works on display.

Initially based in a former Franciscan convent, dating from the 13th century and opened in 1798, it offers the general public a complete retrospective of western painting from the 13th to 21st centuries, with French, Flemish, Dutch, Italian and Spanish art represented by numerous masterpieces. A panorama of the main trends in contemporary art since 1945 and an archive of Egyptian antiquities documented by Champollion complete the museum's collection.

The present museum, which reopened in 1994 on Place Lavalette and whose architecture has been completely redesigned, is located in the immediate vicinity of the old quarters of town and is accessible from Place Notre-Dame. It borders the Isère, including the Albert Michallon Park which is directly connected to it and has become a sculpture park. You are sure to appreciate the brightness and the 7,500 m² of space devoted to the permanent and temporary collections, which are spread over the rooms on either side of a large gallery, designed to resemble an indoor street in broad daylight. The rigour, simplicity and clarity of the design, and the very pure geometry with its soft lines, have helped to raise the profile of the Museum of Grenoble, a true conceptual success at the service of Art.

The sheer scale of the museum's art collection may make it hard to organise your visit. Be sure to take a look at the departments of Antiquities, the 13th to 16th centuries, 17th to 19th centuries, contemporary art, modern art and graphic arts. Those who prefer a guided tour can choose from a wide range of tours for all audiences, individuals, groups and families, some of which are designed to build bridges between art, literature, poetry, music, dance, theatre and architecture. For children, there are "Wednesday workshops" all year round, on fifteen or so different themes, to understand, imagine, discover one or more works of art, and take part in a visual art creation workshop.

With a surface area of 44 km², the Bourget lake is the biggest natural lake of glacial origin in France. Surrounded by hills and mountains, this unspoiled lake offers numerous water sports activities. Moreover, it is surrounded by a few sailing and fishing ports, such as that of Aix-les-Bains or Bourget-du-Lac.

From the mount Revard situated in the Bauges massif, the view of the lake and the spa town of Aix-les-Bains is wonderful!

Every year in late September/early October, the Romantic Nights festival of the Bourget lake is a great classical music event.

At the heart of Bugey, Ain, the Maison des enfants d'Izieu was a children's centre that ran holiday camps before the war. In 1943 and 1944, it was a place of refuge for Jewish people, 44 children and 7 adults, until they were deported on 6 April 1944. Today, there is a memorial to them on the site, in the hamlet of Lélinaz.

In the house's refectory and dormitories, an exhibition evokes the atmosphere of the camp and the refugee children's daily life. You can absorb the atmosphere of the time by visiting the rooms where they lived, and looking at their letters and drawings, as well as portraits of each one of them. A particularly moving experience...

In the barn and the new building, which was inaugurated in 2015 by President François Hollande, there is an exhibition space, a documentation centre and rooms dedicated to educational activities. The permanent exhibition, supported by archives, deals with three themes: the story of the Jewish children of Izieu, the judgment of war criminals and the mechanisms for building memory.

This place aims to ensure history is not forgotten, and is also a site for awareness-raising and education against intolerance and discrimination.