Jean Jaurès, the longest European avenue

Cours Jean Jaurès à Grenoble

 

Do you know the “cours Jean Jaurès” in Grenoble? We bet YES! But did you know it is the longest straight avenue in Europe? Let’s explain this!

This avenue starts with the name “cours Jean-Jaurès” (just at the bottom of the famous “Bastille”) and becomes the “cours de la Libération et du Général de Gaulle” when it crosses the “boulevard Maréchal Foch”. Then this avenue comes back to the name of the “cours Jean-Jaurès” when it crosses the European road E712 (N87 in French). It finally becomes the “cours Saint André” when the avenue enters in the city of “Le Pont de Claix”.

We have already heard you saying “Why does it change of name?” Here is our answer.

Initially, the whole avenue was baptized “cours Saint André”, but since it has crossed different cities, they all have the right to name it as they want. “Le pont de Claix” has decided to keep the original name “cours Saint André” which was the name of a powerful family in the 17^th century. In 1920, Grenoble decided to baptize its part of the avenue “cours Jean Jaurès” and in 1944 (5^th of December), Grenoble baptized the south part of the avenue “cours de la Libération et du Général de Gaulle” to honor the famous Général de Gaulle.

What does this avenue stand for?

At the starting point (the end of the 17th century), it was a small dyke to help the Drac’s canal in the struggle of the overflowing and where citizen went to take for a walk. Today, it gathers hundreds of business, shops and stores and is one of the center of the economy in Grenoble.

How deep is the avenue?

To compare to Paris, between the “place de la Concorde” and the “Defense”, there is only 5.8 kilometers and the famous avenue “Champs Elysées”, which is one of the most known avenue in Europe lengths only 2 kilometers. This avenue lengths 7.8 kilometers and is 50 meters width.