Discover Isère : Architecture

The chalet, architectural emblem of the Alps

Everyone uses the term "chalet" to designate these small, cosy and too pretty houses scattered in the French Alps. Their particularity is to have stone foundations, wooden living floors, a wide projecting roof to shelter the walls, a facade decorated with carved ornaments and a balcony to enjoy the sun and the beautiful landscapes. But originally, the chalet - a word that comes from Switzerland - refers to buildings in the mountain pastures, a place of work that provided shelter for animals and people. It was Jean-Jacques Rousseau who popularized the term "chalet" in La Nouvelle Héloïse

, while locals and tourists alike made the chalet the traditional habitat of the mountains. Not all chalets in the Alps are alike and each region has its own particularities. The most important one is linked to the materials used for the construction. Ingeniously, people have used the few materials available on the spot. Thus, in regions rich in wood, the roofs are covered with tavaillons, a type of wooden tile, or lauzes, large flat stones that are very resistant to the weather. From the rustic and isolated alpine chalet to the contemporary chalet with all the comforts of home and grouped together in the resort villages, whatever its style or period, the chalet remains an emblematic element of the architecture of the Alps.

Ski resorts, successes and failures of mountain architecture

Long before there were ski resorts, there were mountain villages that welcomed the first winter sports tourists. Villages like Montgenèvre in the Hautes-Alpes, Megève and Combloux in Haute-Savoie, L'Alpe d'Huez in Isère installed the first ski lifts in the years 1935/36. The pleasure of skiing and snowboarding won over the tourists and quickly became a great success, forcing the promoters of the white gold to create adapted infrastructures. During the "Trente Glorieuses" (after the war 1946/1975), ski resorts sprouted like mushrooms on the slopes of the Alps. The great natural spaces become a playground where man plays the sorcerer's apprentice urbanist. Each architect has his own concept to accommodate a maximum number of skiers in apartments often reduced to a minimum. But if some housing bars disfigure the mountains and offer little comfort, other visions are more successful. The architecture of the resort of Les Arcs, a resort that wants to be integrated into the landscape thanks to the work of Charlotte Perriand, is inspired by the thoughts of Le Corbusier. The most successful ski resort is certainly Avoriaz, a car-free resort with a harmonious architecture. Many buildings in the ski resorts have the Remarkable Contemporary Architecture label.

Churches and abbeys, the baroque as a highlight

The Alps are a remote part of the world that quickly became very religious and are dotted with churches and abbeys, each more beautiful than the last. If Romanesque art has produced many marvels, particularly in the southern Alps under the influence of Lombardy, the most characteristic places of worship in the Alps are the baroque churches, the most beautiful examples of which can be found in the Savoy region. There are even Baroque paths that will take you to 90 sites where religious imagery, through angels, gilding, altarpiece sculptures... is omnipresent. Remarkable golds and colours that can be seen from afar with the famous bulbous bell towers that shoot out of the mountains. More austere, more confidential, the abbeys settle in these places conducive to silence, meditation and the work of monks. Among the most famous: Hautecombe Abbey, Notre-Dame de Tamié, Grande Chartreuse Monastery or Boscodon Abbey. Finally, the church of Notre-Dame-de-Toute-Grâce on the Plateau d'Assy is a modern setting built by the Savoyard architect Maurice Novarina (church consecrated in 1950) for works of art by great artists (Matisse, Léger, Lurçat, Braque, Chagall...) inspired by the sacred.

Castles and strongholds in the Alps, impregnable fortresses

The Alps are not known for housing the most beautiful French castles. However, it would be a misunderstanding of their architectural heritage to neglect fortifications that have not always received the care they needed to reach us in the best possible condition. Proof that things are changing, remarkable castles are being renovated in the Alps, such as the superb medieval castle of the Sires de Faucigny in Bonneville. Among the castles to visit during a trip to the region are: the castle of Ripaille on the shores of Lake Geneva, the castle of Annecy which watches over the old town, the castle of Menthon-Saint-Bernard which overlooks Lake Annecy, the castle of Chambéry, the richly decorated residence of the Dukes of Savoy. The Southern Alps have fewer castles, but offer impressive citadels. Forming a network of fortifications built by Vauban. Fort Queyras, Mont Dauphin, the city of Briançon are all impregnable fortresses offering today a dream setting. Other forts were built later to protect France during the Great War, such as Fort Tournoux in the Alpes de Haute-Provence, nicknamed the Versailles of military art, one of the most beautiful works of the Maginot Line which resisted the assaults of the Mussolinian army in 1940. Unbelievable !