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The imposing limestone ramparts of the Grande Chartreuse massif overlook the Grésivaudan. There are several layers of hard limestone, which are separated in the sedimentary succession by more easily eroded marly limestones. Here, the Tithonic summit scarp of Mont St Eynard overlooks a band of Oxfordian limestone supporting a rock shoulder or terrace with urban development. Between the two, the more easily eroded rocks form steep scree-covered slopes. Beyond this, to the north, the Tithonian limestone forms a bench, the Petites Roches Plateau, which is itself overlooked by an Urgonnian rock step, the Dent de Crolles and the whole range making up the edge of the sub-Alpine plateau.

These rocky, well-exposed hills were planted in vineyards at the beginning of the 20th century, and today are home to a very agreeable, though heavily built-up residential neighbourhood.

In the Grésivaudan plain, along a dozen kilometre/8 mile stretch from Grenoble, and extending to a depth of one or two kilometres/one mile, there is uninterrupted urban build-up joining the communes of Corenc, Meylan, Biviers, Saint-Ismier and Saint-Nazaire-des-Eymes. Over the last thirty years, the old village and hamlet centres were gradually encroached, surrounded and finally absorbed into the urban fabric of the "country town".

This is the most significant example in the department of suburbanisation consisting of single-family dwellings with their gardens. The predominant feeling is that this expansion will continue in the direction of Bernin, Crolles and the communes that flow along the length of the valley. Only a few wooded strips descending from Mont Saint-Eynard along the small valleys that are at risk of floods and avalanches interrupt the housing divisions and their surrounding horticultural activities.

The resulting atmosphere can hardly pretend to be original . A few country homes and châteaux, which are nevertheless part of the valley's "one hundred chateaux", are too few to save the place from the repetitiveness of roadways bordered by vegetation screens that protect the inhabitants instead of giving views of the town streets. All that remains is a certain symbolic diversity ,based on the history of these places, taken one at a time, due to their proximity to the city with which they share a history. This diversity is more visible in the buildings that reflect the area's cultural life than in the landscapes.