The inhabitants of Rhône-Alpes have woven their history between the Roman settlement in Lugdunum and the creation of the World Wide Web in the Gex Country. They plough a fertile furrow, from the lavender fields of Provence to the Mont Blanc peak in Haute-Savoie. Following in Hannibal's tracks across the Alps, today they explore the 5 regional natural parks, the beaujolais vineyards or baroque churches.

The inhabitants of Rhône-Alpes share the same family album, where the XVIIth century Florentine merchants opening trading houses in Lyon rub shoulders with the XIXth century peddlers crossing the mountain passes between Grenoble and Turin and the XXIst century explorers resourcing themselves in the majestic gorges of the Ardèche river. This tradition of meetings is perpetuated through events such as the G7 Heads of State summit in 1996 or the World Bio-technologies Forum, BioVision, organised in Lyon every two years.

This living environment on a human scale, where the natural surroundings are preserved, enable everyone to feel at home. Rhône-Alpes, which hosted the Olympic Games in 1924 and 1968 in Grenoble, and 1992 in Albertville, is a hive of sporting activity - one inhabitant out of three holds a sports federation licence. They are also keen to discover their heritage, through a large number of old quarters, the Lyon silk looms and residences of the counts of Forez. They also explore the villages of the Drôme, clinging to sun-drenched hillsides, which inspired Mme de Sévigné's correspondence. And they linger in the museums of Fine Arts and contemporary art.