Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The Villa Les Cyclamens, located 16 avenue Anatole France in Grenoble, replaces in 1936 an old house built on a property acquired in 1908 by the entrepreneur Aristide Bonneton. This area, which was poorly urbanised until the 1920s, developed after the destruction of the southern ramparts. Bonneton deposited a permit for a gardener's house there in 1924, before his daughter Yvonne and his son-in-law, Dr Ferrieux, entrusted architect Pierre Bouvier with the reconstruction of the villa in a neo-Basque style inspired by Atlantic seaside architecture, notably from Villa Arnaga d'Edmond Rostand in Cambo-les-Bains.

The villa incorporates characteristic elements of the neo-basque style — asymmetrical roof, red half-timbers, pergola with five arcades — while adopting a modern 1930s aesthetic. Its park of 7,000 m2, partially preserved, includes a pool-mirror formerly reflecting the villa on a backdrop of mountains, tennis, a greenhouse, and a tonnale for the game of balls. The interior maintains a central hall distributing the rooms, a guardrail staircase in lockhouse, and a loggia transformed from a gazebo terrace. The property, divided into apartments in the 1990s, has remained in the same family for five generations.

Listed as a Historical Monument in 2024 for its entirety (village, park, edicles), the villa Les Cyclamens is also awarded the Isère Heritage label in 2020. Its park, although lacking maintenance, retains its original structure: paved alleys, statues, and various tree species, although tree growth has altered the initial outlook. The gardener's house, still inhabited, is in good condition. Today integrated into the project of ZAC Flaubert, the villa bears witness to an art of living combining Basque influences and Alpine modernity.

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