5. Gresse-en-Vercors / Chichilianne (stage 5)

11 points of interest

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  Gresse-en-Vercors

  Gresse-en-Vercors is a small ski resort of 400 inhabitants, nestled between the eastern border of the Vercors and the Serpaton mountain pasture. The village church was built in the traditional style of the old mountain chapels. It is the oldest monument in the Gothic style of the region. Its construction goes back to the 13th century for its lower part. A great quantity of its very beautiful stones were carved on the high plateaux of the Vercors at about 1800 meters of altitude.

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  Grand-Veymont

  Gresse-en-Vercors is dominated to the south by the Grand Veymont, located in the Hautes-Plateaux reserve of Vercors, it is with its 2341 m the climax of the massif. The Pas de la Ville to the north of the Grand Veymont allows to reach the High Plateaux. It is one of the few passages that connects Gresse-en-Vercors to the heart of the massif.

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  Murgers

  The name would come from a Burgundian word. It is true that from Bourgogne to the Ardèche, the stones grow well in limestone fields! These piles of pebbles at the edge of the field are the result of the stoning patient, over time, realized by generations of obstinate peasants to gain arable land. Sometimes, they are mounted in low walls to delimit enclosures and plots.It is also a beautiful refuge for rampant wildlife in search of shelter.

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  Life in the rock

  In scree slopes, life conditions are difficult for plants, and the fallen rock debris can become unstable and migrate slowly downslope by solifluxion. Many different strategies can be adopted by plants to survive. 
  
  Studies conducted in the Pyrenees have shown there are two strategies:
  1/ Immigrant lithophilic plants can anchor and extend their roots even while the rockslides are moving,
  2/ Some trees such as hook pine are able to stretch
  their trunks while remaining anchored far upslope.

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  Mont Aiguille

  The Mont Aiguille, from its 2087 meters, is a mound of the eastern barrier of the Vercors. Indeed, the Mount is composed of the same materials as the rest of the plateau (limestones and marls deposited by the sea before the rising of the Alps) to which it was formerly attached. The most tender limestones and the presence of numerous faults facilitated the dissolution of the limestone over time, leading to the isolation of Mount.

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  La Bâtie

  The hamlet of La Bâtie between Mont Aiguille and Grand Veymont is lodged at an altitude of over 1,100 m. Only a handful of residents lived here all year round, grouped together around the chapel. Until 1858, when it was attached to Gresse-en-Vercors, La Bâtie was a parish in its own right. The hamlet was home to 22 families – around 100 inhabitants – in the 17th century. The chapel, which was rebuilt in the late 1800s, faces south-east. With its thick walls, half-buried porch and small openings, it is a typical example of a mountain chapel.

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  Freydier and Maurice houses

  On July 4, 1944, two houses in the hamlet owned by Madame Freydier were destroyed by the occupying forces following the ambush carried out the previous day by the Font Rousse Resistance at the Allimas pass. The first, here on the side of the road, had recently been repaired in 1938. It was clad in corrugated iron and consisted of four rooms, cellar and barn. The second, which was very close by, had a thatched roof and two rooms, a cellar, barn and stables with all the agricultural tools used at the time.
  
  On July 21, 1944, the sheepfold belonging to Léon Maurice was burned down during the attack in the south-east of the Vercors as part of the general offensive by the 157th Reserve Division under the command of General Pflaum.

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  Mont Aiguille

  The Mont Aiguille, from its 2087 meters, is a mound of the eastern barrier of the Vercors. Indeed, the Mount is composed of the same materials as the rest of the plateau (limestones and marls deposited by the sea before the rising of the Alps) to which it was formerly attached. The most tender limestones and the presence of numerous faults facilitated the dissolution of the limestone over time, leading to the isolation of Mount.

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  Chapel of Trézanne

  Nestled at the foot of Mount Aiguille, the Chapel of Trézanne offers a magnificent view of this majestic mountain, overlooking it more than 1000 m. This small Romanesque chapel is characterized by its thatched roof which was rehabilitated in 2001 and recently renovated. Before the eighteenth century, the thatched roofs were numerous in the Trièves: they were gradually replaced by tile roofing, notably because of the fires.
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  Torrent des Ruines

  The toponym “les Ruines” is common in the Alps, often referring to unstable terrain that suffers heavy erosion and torrential flooding: lava, a mixture of water, earth and blocks of stone. The floods move at speed (at tens of km/h) in a very straight, steep channel, but behave like a drift that can transport blocks several cubic meters in size (the equivalent of a car or even a van) just like volcanic lava.

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  Colossus with a foot of clay

  The foot of Mont Aiguille is shaped from marl, a sedimentary rock that is prone to gully erosion and scouring. These numerous ravines are clearly visible on the south-eastern side. At the foot of the rock wall, the keen eye can make out huge blocks that come from the mighty limestone wall of Mont Aiguille. An entire portion of this wall collapsed one day due to the retreating ravines. This is how Mont Aiguille disappeared little by little following one collapse after another.