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.

La géographie du Vercors est souvent résumée par le terme « plateau ». Vue de loin, elle semble simple : la différence d’altitude entre le massif et les vallées est de plusieurs centaines de mètres, pour atteindre les zones habitées qui se trouvent entre 800 et 1 200 mètres d’altitude. La crête du flanc oriental, longue de cinquante kilomètres, présente plusieurs sommets qui dépassent les 2 000 mètres d’altitude, l’intérieur du massif oscillant entre 800 et 1 500 mètres.

Le relief particulier du Vercors lui vaut deux surnoms. Celui de « Forteresse » témoigne de l’accès difficile de la plaine au Vercors : il faut le plus souvent passer par des gorges de falaises calcaires ou des pas accessibles seulement aux randonneurs pédestres ; celui de « Dolomites françaises » renvoie au massif calcaire italien connu pour ses formes de rochers particulières.

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.

En y regardant de plus près, les contrastes sont importants : de larges vallées (val de Lans-en-Vercors, régions d’Autrans, de La Chapelle-en-Vercors, etc.) et plateaux (forêt des Coulmes, forêt de Lente et les immenses Hauts-Plateaux du Vercors) sont séparés par de profondes gorges (gorges de la Bourne, du Furon, etc.) et par des falaises imposantes pouvant dépasser 400 mètres de hauteur (falaises de Presles, de la combe Laval, du cirque d’Archiane, etc.). Le mont Aiguille est isolé du reste du massif par une érosion qui l’a entaillé sur tous ses flancs.

Du fait de ce relief, plusieurs parties du Vercors sont particulièrement isolées du reste du massif. Gresse-en-Vercors ne communique pas avec l’intérieur du massif : il faut parcourir une centaine de kilomètres pour rejoindre le sud du Vercors en passant par le col de Rousset et environ soixante-dix aussi pour atteindre le nord du Vercors en passant par 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 dont l’emplacement était situé à 300 m du village vacances. Le Village Vacances compte 140 lits répartis sur 4 étages de chambres : 11 au rez-de-jardin, 22 au rez-de-chaussée dont deux accessibles aux personnes à mobilité réduite, 22 en duplex au premier et deuxième étages. Le Piroulet dispose de quatre salles de classe et/ou d’activités, une grande salle d’animation, deux autres salles d’activités, trois salles de restaurant, un salon, un bar, une piscine couverte et chauffée.

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.