Grenoble vs Pretoria

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Grenoble ( grə-NOH-bəl, French: [ɡʁənɔbl] (listen); Francoprovençal: Grenoblo) is the prefecture and largest city of the Isère department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It lies at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. A significant European scientific centre, the city advertises itself as the "Capital of the Alps", due to its size and its proximity to the mountains. The population of the commune of Grenoble was 158,180 at the 2016 census, while the population of the Grenoble metropolitan area (French: aire urbaine de Grenoble or "agglomération grenobloise") was 687,985 which makes it the largest metropolis in the Alps, ahead of Innsbruck and Bolzano. The residents of the city are called "Grenoblois". The many suburb communes that make up the rest of the metropolitan area include three with populations exceeding 20,000: Saint-Martin-d'Hères, Échirolles, Fontaine and Voiron.Grenoble's history goes back over 2,000 years, to a time when it was a small Gallic village.

It became the capital of the Dauphiné in the 11th century. This status, consolidated by the annexation to France, allowed it to develop its economy. Grenoble then became a parliamentary and military city, close to the border with Savoy. Industrial development increased the prominence of Grenoble through several periods of economic expansion over the last three centuries. This started with a booming glove industry in the 18th and 19th centuries, continued with the development of a strong hydropower industry in the late 19th to early 20th centuries and ended with a post-World War II economic boom symbolized by the holding of the X Olympic Winter Games in 1968. The city has grown to be one of Europe's most important research, technology and innovation centres, with one in five inhabitants working directly in these fields. Grenoble is classified as a global city with the ranking of "sufficiency" by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. The city will hold the title of European Green Capital in 2022.

Source: Wikipedia

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Pretoria (Afrikaans pronunciation: [prɛˈtʊəria]; Zulu: ePitoli; Tswana: Tshwane), also known as Tshwane, is one of South Africa’s three capital cities, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. (Cape Town is the legislative capital and Bloemfontein the judicial capital.)Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foothills of the Magaliesberg mountains. It has a reputation as an academic city and center of research, being home to the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT), the University of Pretoria (UP), Sefako Makgatho Health Science University (SMU), the University of South Africa (UNISA), the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and the Human Sciences Research Council.

It also hosts the National Research Foundation and the South African Bureau of Standards. Pretoria was one of the host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Pretoria is the eighth richest city in Africa and the fourth richest in South Africa. Pretoria is the central part of the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality which was formed by the amalgamation of several former local authorities, including Centurion and Soshanguve. Some have proposed changing the official name from Pretoria to Tshwane, which has caused some public controversy. Pretoria is named after the Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius, and South Africans sometimes call it the "Jacaranda City," because of the thousands of jacaranda trees planted along its streets and in its parks and gardens.

Source: Wikipedia