Summer break in Vassieux-en-Vercors (Drôme) from 16 to 24 July 2016

Introduction to the region

The Vercors is a massif in the Pre-Alps region of south-eastern France, straddling the departments of Isère and Drôme, and rising to an altitude of 2,341 metres at Grand Veymont. The Isère part is much better known for tourism, particularly winter tourism, thanks to the fame brought by the 1968 Grenoble Olympic Games. Autrans, Villard-de-Lans and Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte were the venues for the Nordic events (cross-country skiing and ski jumping). The Drôme part of the massif is much wilder, and that's where we'll be staying this summer.

The geography of the Vercors is often summed up by the term "plateau". Seen from a distance, it looks simple: the difference in altitude between the massif and the valleys is several hundred metres, reaching the inhabited areas at between 800 and 1,200 metres. The fifty-kilometre-long ridge on the eastern flank has several peaks that exceed 2,000 metres in altitude, while the interior of the massif fluctuates between 800 and 1,500 metres.

The particular relief of the Vercors has earned it two nicknames. The "Fortress" nickname reflects the difficulty of accessing the Vercors from the plains: most of the time, you have to pass through gorges formed by limestone cliffs or steps accessible only to hikers. The "French Dolomites" nickname refers to the Italian limestone massif known for its distinctive rock shapes.

Because of this particular relief, the centre of the Vercors is divided into several distinct regions.

The Coulmes, to the north-west, has always been the most densely wooded part of the massif. The forest was exploited in the 19th^e In this region, the Vercors looks more like a mountain than a series of plateaux. In this region, the Vercors looks more like a mountain than a succession of plateaux, with the folds of Urgonian limestone being more rounded. There are several impressive routes to the Coulmes, in particular the Gorges du Nan and Gorges des Écouges. A road tour will help you discover them.

The Quatre Montagnes is now the most developed area of the Vercors for tourism, particularly cross-country and downhill skiing. Nevertheless, traditional activities still exist in the Quatre Montagnes, in particular dairy farming and cheese production. The four main villages (Autrans, Méaudre, Lans-en-Vercors and Villard-de-Lans) are spread across two plateaux separated by wooded mountains. These four villages are ski resorts but still have working farms.

On closer inspection, the contrasts are stark: wide valleys (the Lans-en-Vercors valley, the Autrans and La Chapelle-en-Vercors regions, etc.) and plateaux (the Coulmes forest, the Lente forest and the immense Hauts-Plateaux du Vercors) are separated by deep gorges (the Bourne and Furon gorges, etc.).) and plateaux (the Coulmes forest, the Lente forest and the immense Hauts-Plateaux du Vercors) are separated by deep gorges (the Bourne and Furon gorges, etc.) and imposing cliffs that can exceed 400 metres in height (the Presles, Combe Laval and Archiane cirque cliffs, etc.). Mont Aiguille is isolated from the rest of the massif by erosion that has cut into all its flanks.

Because of this relief, several parts of the Vercors are particularly isolated from the rest of the massif. Gresse-en-Vercors has no connection with the interior of the massif: you have to travel around a hundred kilometres to reach the south of the Vercors via the Col de Rousset and around seventy kilometres to reach the north of the Vercors via Saint-Nizier-du-Moucherotte.

The Vercors in the Drôme region is made up of smaller, but more numerous plateaux. Some of these plateaux are spectacular (Ambel, Font d'Urle), offering fine views from one to the other or to the surrounding plains. To the north of the Vercors in the Drôme region are several gorges crossed by impressive roads cut right into the cliffs. The grassy plateaux of the Drôme Vercors are used as mountain pastures in summer. The transhumance is the occasion for a festival in Die.

The Vercors horse

On the plateau des GagèresWhen it's foggy and only the beacons for snow clearance are visible, the atmosphere is special. Or when the frost stretches its thin horizontal blades across the plants and pylons, when the wind sweeps across the lapiaz and meadows, when the storm howls ... a la Porte d'Urle.

The plateau is superb in spring, when the vegetation between the fluted lapiaz slabs, rock barriers and scialets is decked out in narcissi and orchids.

This is the pastureland of the Vercors horsewhich returns from the Crau plain to take up its summer pastures in the Vercors.

This horse is also called Barraquand, after the first breeder, Jules Barraquand, a farmer from Ambel who bought the Font d'Urle lawns in 1919 for his sheep and around a hundred of his horses. The great transhumance then took place between the Mas de Beauchamp in the Crau and the southern Vercors.

The Vercors horse almost disappeared after the war in the 1950s. It owes its survival to passionate breeders and the support of the Vercors Park. Recently, Michel Chapoutier tested the use of animal traction to work his famous vines at Tain-l'Hermitage: perhaps the Vercors horse will become part of the Rhône winegrowing landscape too!

This is a small, hardy and hardy horse, energetic and supple, with a bay coat, expressive eyes and a black and fawn mane. It can be found, almost freely, from Serre Montué to Puy de la Gagère.

Or flush with the cliffs of the Cirque de Quint... In July 1994, a very violent storm sent the horses into a panic and they plunged into the abyss. 47 horses perished and it was difficult to recover their carcasses from the scree and slopes below.

Michèle Sassoulas (cc 1430)

Hosting

Situated on the southern edge of the Vercors massif, on an open, windy plateau, the village of Vassieux-en-Vercors now has a population of 344. Its main sources of income are agriculture and tourism, of which Piroulet is a mainstay.

It's the Village Vacances le Piroulet who is going to welcome us. The word "Piroulet" means "the man who turns the mill". It is linked to the name of the locality, les Prés du Moulin, and refers to an 18th-century water mill.^e which was located 300 m from the holiday village. The holiday village has 140 beds spread over 4 floors of rooms: 11 on the garden level, 22 on the ground floor, two of which are accessible to people with reduced mobility, and 22 duplexes on the first and second floors. Le Piroulet has four classrooms and/or activity rooms, a large activity room, two other activity rooms, three restaurant rooms, a lounge, a bar and a heated indoor swimming pool.

Note from the Board of Directors

If you arrange your accommodation elsewhere than at Le Piroulet holiday village, please let us know that you will be taking part in the holiday, for 3 reasons:

1. To be able to correctly size joint events (information sessions, welcome and farewell parties).
2. To be able to split up into several groups on the routes to improve safety for everyone.
3. To help organisers deal with any unforeseen events.