Authentic villages

At the mouth of the Gorges de la Bourne, Pont en Royans’s beauty lies in its original hanging houses, clinging to the rock over the Bourne river bed. This medieval village with architecture dating from the sixteenth century underlines the importance of the relationship between water and life with its Musée de L’Eau.

Villard de Lans is a village located in the heart of the Vercors Regional Natural Park. Whatever the season, you will appreciate the quality and variety of the environment and the excellent climate that has been recognized for decades. With its 125km for Alpine skiing and 110 km for Nordic skiing, it is one of the largest skiing areas in Europe.Lively whatever the time of year, these resorts offer unique mountain leisure facilities. Villard de Lans offers a perfect environment for relaxation, recharging ones batteries and a real breath of fresh air.

Nestled in the heart of the Vercors Regional Natural Park, located at an altitude of 1050m, Autrans offers a typical Vercors landscape: open spaces, a hilly setting, a cradle of pastures surrounded by forests of spruce and beech and scattered hamlets. Organizer of the famous Foulée Blanche for the past 30 years, this village-resort is one of the French capitals for cross-country skiing.

Former stopover on the ancient Roman roads, Mens, the Trieves capital, is located at the heart of a mountain cirque between the Vercors and the Dévoluy, dominated by the Châtel and the Obiou. While strolling along the town streets, discover the houses with their dormer windows and pulleys, once used to hoist the hay up into the 'bourras”.

Second Marian place for pilgrimage in France after Lourdes, the Sanctuary of Our Lady of La Salette was built on the exact spot where the Marian apparition is said to have occurred to two young shepherds from Corps in 1846. An interesting ex-voto collection can also be seen in the Musée de l’Apparition

Perched up above the Romanche valley, the village of Besse-en-Oisans is unique with its houses all built in stone, a display of magnificent harmony between the grey shale and the white quartz and calcite pebbles, blending in beautifully with the gentle stone slate roof tops. The Maison des Alpages tells all about pastoralism, a cultural heritage that the people from Besse are very attached to.

Located in the centre of the Massif des Ecrins and the National Park bearing the same name, the Bérarde Valley is surrounded by magnificent breathtaking peaks: La Meije, Les Ecrins, Aile froide, the Olan, la Dibona... In St Christophe en Oisans mountaineering is a daily reality: dynasties of mountain guides have succeeded one another, such as Pierre Gaspard, winner of the Meije.

Highly frequented for centuries by pilgrims, the medieval village of Saint Antoine l'Abbaye offers the opportunity to discover its majestic Gothic abbey and to stroll leisurely along its medieval streets

On the border between the Dauphiné and the Savoy, Crémieu is noted for its covered market, coin mint and fortified wall, all constructed during the fourteenth century. Thus the town became an important stopover for merchants and a major trading centre in cereals. This medieval city has inspired many landscape painters, such as Corot.

Take time to wander the streets of Morestel and discover the fifteenth century houses that have delighted so many artists and made the town famous as a city of painters. Looking down from up high, the donjon of the Medieval Tower revives the historical epics that it has witnessed over the centuries.

Headquarters of an important religious community for eleven centuries, the village of St Chef possesses a jewel of the French Romanesque art with its Benedictine abbey that still houses frescoes from the 12th century. This historical site was also the cradle of the French writer Frédéric Dard, author of the San-Antonio series