The six most inspiring sites in Savoie

In Savoie, land of lakes, mountains and heritage, there are many inspiring sitesThe selection is necessarily subjective as for the list proposed in the article on Haute-Savoie But the rule is always the same. These sites provide an emotion, a feeling of infinity, a vertigo, through their beauty, their scale, their spiritual dimension. For this emotion to take shape, the place must have a lived experience: Man has or has had his place there. Nature amplifies and sublimates this presence.

So, we had to sort and choose from such a long list that other articles will certainly deal with the sites that were not selected. This will give you the opportunity to come back to the blog ofalpaddict.com.

In this article, you can discover or rediscover the following sites:

The Roselend Chapel
And Monal
The Ecot
The Ontex Belvedere
Lake Saint André
The church of Landry

The Roselend chapel, on the edge of an already very inspiring lake

It is by the road which goes up from the pretty village of Beaufort that you have to arrive at Lake Roselend. Mirror of the sky of Beaufortain, surrounded by mythical peaks like the Pierre Menta, the lake appears at the end of a final bend. Its turquoise blue color contrasts with the bright green of its banks in summer. When the grass turns red under the blows of the first frosts at the beginning of autumn and the moor takes on a desolate appearance, the lake adds a wild touch, a bit like the highlands of another time. Continuing along its banks, towards the Cormet de Roselend, a crossing point, open in the summer, between Beaufortain and Tarentaise, we finally see it.

La Roselend chapel is planted at the edge of the road, at an altitude of 1600 meters, in a dominant position over the lake which, about fifty meters lower, occupies an old valley submerged by the construction of a dam. In the middle of this valley, now covered by water, there was an old chapel dedicated to Saint Madeleine. When the dam was built, it was rebuilt where the traveler can see it, along the road. When you are inside, in the half-light, and you open the doors of the door, you find yourself facing the immensity of the landscape. The lake makes up the foreground and the ridges from Roche Parstire to Mont Coin and the Pierre Menta, the decor.

You might want to sit down on the square and take a moment for yourself. But there are better things to do. Just climb a few meters up the hill behind the small chapel: you can then sit down and have it in your field of vision, facing the lake and its background. With its two-bell bell tower, the small, simple, rustic building, all made of stone, seems to be a sentinel of the passing of time. A fixed point amidst the clouds whose reflections peacefully cross the lake. We imagine it there, imperturbable through the seasons, under the snow, as under the storm. A symbol of perpetuity and eternity. A very inspiring place.

Walk to the hamlet of Monal — The hamlet of Monal

Le Monal, the most inspiring hamlet in Savoie

To get to Monal, you have to walk! Since Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise, it takes a good hour of walking and almost three hundred meters of elevation gain. It's short enough for the more athletic and far enough to protect this particularly inspiring place from the crowds of tourists looking for just one more photo for their collection. At almost 1900 meters above sea level, And Monal is a small hamlet located on a flat area overlooking the upper Isère valley. This flat area isolates the small village, made up of a few houses and crossed by a small stream, from the passage of cars from the bottom of the valley. Below, beyond a small slope which seems to close and protect the Monal plateau, one can see, at the bottom of the valley, the hustle and bustle which animates the road to Col de l'Iseran between Bourg Saint Maurice and the resorts of Tignes and Val d'Isère.

It is when you look up that you see the most striking part of the landscape. Just opposite the natural balcony of Monal, rises the summit of Mont Pourri at 3779 meters altitude. Nearly two thousand meters of verticality that crush the small hamlet even more. Every season is beautiful at Monal, but the colder seasons are the most inspiring. Autumn, when the yellow larches adorn Mont Pourri, already covered in snow for the most part, is the season for photographers. Winter, when the small village is completely deserted and the houses are covered in a thick layer of snow, everything is silent and frozen. A few traces of wild animals indicate a secret life very discreet to our eyes. But solitude reigns. If you look hard enough, you will eventually find a low wall or an old stump to sit and meditate. Monal is certainly one of the most inspiring sites in Savoie.

Walk around Bonneval sur Arc — The hamlet of Ecot in winter

L'Ecot, a hamlet in a remote valley

From one hamlet to another. After Le Monal, let's move on to Haute-Maurienne, on the side of the very pretty village of Bonneval sur ArcDespite its distance from major cities, this stone village is well known to tourists. In summer, it is an essential stop on the road to Iseran PassIn winter it is a small, confidential ski resort where people come to practice all types of skiing and snow activities in a valley renowned for the quality and abundance of its snow. It is precisely in winter that the walk to the hamlet of Ecot becomes very inspiring. About three kilometers from Bonneval sur Arc, towards the sources of the Arc, a river that crosses the entire Maurienne, at an altitude of 2000 meters, the small hamlet of the Ecot surprises the hiker. Its houses and its small church barely stand out from the rocky chaos that surrounds them. Stones among stones, rocks among rocks. Everything is white, everything is covered in a thick blanket of snow from which emerge these few houses and this pretty little stone chapel. Facing west, the Ecot catches all the rays of the sun, long after Bonneval sur Arc, nearly one hundred and fifty meters further, has returned to the darkness of evening.

Certainly, there are some people passing through, because it's a well-known place, in a tourist area. But there's always a low wall to lean your back against and contemplate the sky and the snow-covered slopes in silence, out of sight. You can continue the walk to a sunny marshy plateau surrounded by mountains at an altitude of over 3000 meters. Immense space and immense solitude. Another inspiring place in Savoie.

The Ontex Belvedere

Change of scenery for the site of the Ontex Lookout, overlooking Lake Bourget. Here, the mountain is much more peaceful. At an altitude of 600 meters, the Ontex belvedere overlooks the Hautecombe Abbey and faces the town of Aix les Bains, which stretches out on the opposite bank. wallows stand out on the horizon, while in the foreground we can see the cliffs of Revard and Nivolet which dominate the shores of the lake. We can see the entire extent of the lake, from Châtillon to Bourget du Lac. From the Chautagne region to the Chambéry gorge. In the distance, to the south, the mountain ranges, long covered in snow until mid-June, between Isère and Savoie, block the landscape. The thick forest surrounding the belvedere descends to the shores of the lake and surrounds theHautecombe Abbey. It is a high place of history. For more than eight hundred years it has been a high place of Savoyard spirituality, desired by the Counts then the Dukes of Savoy and restored by the King of Sardinia. It is one of the necropolises of the House of Savoy. Several tombs of members of the dynasty can be found in the church. Bourget lake, this is Lamartine's. The romantic poet capable of mixing love, death, and time in these places. The verses of his poem resonate between the shores of the lake. So there is Art, History, Spirituality, the landscape. Everything you need to find a secluded corner and enjoy an intense moment of inspiration. Then, we continue on our way, to the village of Ontex a few hundred meters away. Around a bend, in good weather, we can see Mont Blanc. It's almost a secret. Keep it safe.

Lake Savoie: Saint André — Saint André Lake

Saint André Lake

At the foot of Mount Granier, summit of the massif of the Chartreuse, and in front of the Belledonne massif, the Lac de Saint André is a small forgotten pearl of the Savoie plains. Everything here is a contrast. First, it is a small lake in the plains while the imagination makes Savoie a land of high mountains. Then it is located in the middle of the vineyards. We could be in Alsace, Burgundy, Occitanie and yet it is Savoie. We therefore find there this gentleness of the landscapes worked by men. These stone paths which run between the vines. The Lake Saint André invites you to stop and relax. Small pontoons allow fishermen to cast their lines from a forward position in the lake. Each one has their own pontoon. Sometimes it's a loving couple who occupy it, sometimes a family with small children, sometimes an old man who comes to bathe in the light. The mountains, in the distance, opposite, over the plains, snow-capped in winter, are reflected in the lake, but the star here is the Mount Granier.

Its truncated silhouette rises above the vineyard. This silhouette became truncated following a huge landslide several centuries ago that reshaped the geography and history of the place. This same landslide that spared a chapel in which a black virgin was venerated. It was she who, according to legend, repelled the demons responsible for the landslide. It is she who is still prayed to and thanked today. The Deo Gratias can be seen in the chapel of this beautiful church of Our Lady of Myans topped with a golden statue of the Virgin. Moving. But you don't need to be a believer to feel the energy of a place. The Saint André Lake, by the simple fact of calming the spirits is a place whose positive energy encourages recharging. This is also an inspiring place.

An inspiring place in Savoie — The church of Landry and its old cemetery

The church of Landry

It is not by chance that we arrive at the church of LandryIt is famous for being one of the Baroque chapels of Tarentaise and its very particular bell tower can be seen from afar. In fact, it is placed on a rocky promontory which dominates the valley between Aime and Bourg Saint Maurice, at the foot of the ski slopes of the large resorts like La Plagne ou Les ArcsIt is also on the road to Peisey and the Rosuel valley which enters the massif of the Vanoise. So, if you're curious, you're bound to stop there. Once there, the surprise doesn't come from the church itself, but from what surrounds it: its small and very old cemetery.

"It's normal for a mountain church to be surrounded by its cemetery," says the distracted passerby... But the observer looks at the dates. Practically all the birth dates engraved in the wrought iron or on the plaques glued to the crosses are prior to 1860. That is to say, all the people buried in this cemetery were born Sardinians (from the Kingdom of Piedmont Sardinia, embryo of the future Italy which possessed the States of Savoy) and died French, simply following the decision of Napoleon III and the future King of Italy, Victor Emmanuel II to exchange Nice and Savoy for military aid intended to liberate northern Italy from the Austrians. So we say to ourselves that ultimately what really matters for a human being is his role within his small community, his village, his land. Here, on the horizon, we see neither Paris nor Turin (and even less Rome): we only see the mountains of TarentaiseThese men and women built this valley without worrying about what rulers would do with them or the borders of the territories in which they lived. Ultimately, their nobility, the one that inspires today's traveler, is this simplicity. So, on the low wall surrounding the church, between two old leaning crosses, one can sit, reflect, and celebrate life. The one that begins at dawn, fades in the evening, and begins again the next day. Simple and inspiring.

Destinations

Blog