Haut-Bugey

Lac de Nantua

Lac de Nantua fills part of the Nantua cluse, a corridor cut across the folds of the Jura and once followed by the Jura glacier, which left its deposits here. Lying at 475 metres above sea level, it stretches from west to east for 2.7 kilometres and is 650 metres wide, covers 141 hectares and holds 40 million cubic metres of water, with a maximum depth of 42.9 metres. Three small streams, the Doye and the two Merloz, feed it mainly from the south-east, and its single outlet, the Bras du Lac, joins the Oignin. A little-known curiosity: Lac Genin drains partly into Lac de Sylans, which in turn partly feeds Lac de Nantua. Lying entirely within the municipality of Nantua, it is bordered to the west by Port and Montréal-la-Cluse. Protected as a listed site in the 1930s, it lends itself to gentle activities: canoeing, paddleboarding, pedalos, fishing, a ride round it by bike, and lifeguarded swimming in summer at the Albert Griot beach on the north shore. Many motorists know Nantua only from the A40 motorway viaduct, but you need to come down into town and walk along the shore to watch the lake change colour through the day.

Abbey church of Saint-Michel, Nantua

The Benedictine abbey of Saint-Pierre in Nantua was founded around 671 and became, around 1100, a priory dependent on Cluny. All that remains today is the church of Saint-Michel, rebuilt in the late 11th century and considered one of the most imposing religious buildings in the Ain. Romanesque in origin and Cluniac in influence, it received early regional Gothic vaults in the late 12th century. The bell tower, torn down in 1793 like all those in the region, was rebuilt, and the organ by Nicolas-Antoine Lété, which arrived in Nantua in 1847 and is a listed historic monument, has 2,883 pipes and 42 stops; it marks the shift from the classical to the Romantic aesthetic. The church's treasure is a canvas by Eugène Delacroix, Saint Sebastian Tended by the Holy Women, dated 1836. The church has been a listed historic monument since 1907, and its bell tower was added to the register in its turn in 2015. Entry is free outside services, and the tourist office runs guided tours.

Ain Museum of the Resistance and Deportation

The departmental Museum of the Resistance and Deportation occupies the former Nantua prison, a 19th-century building that became a museum in the 20th century, in the heart of town on the Montée de l'Abbaye. Extension and accessibility works carried out from 2015 to 2017 renewed the entire display. The exhibition sets out the strategic stakes of the Ain during the Second World War, a département bordering Switzerland and crossed by the demarcation line, then the maquis of the Ain and Haut-Jura, whose actions left their mark on the whole region. The round-up of 14 December 1943 in Nantua, in which residents were arrested and deported, receives particular attention, as do the individual stories of resisters and deportees from the département. A final section shows how the memory of those years was built after 1945. The museum, which is regularly enriched by donations from families, also offers events and outings in the footsteps of the maquisards. Allow an hour and a half to two hours; the €8 ticket includes the temporary exhibitions and is valid all day.

Sylans ice houses

Lac de Sylans formed in the Middle Ages, when a section of the cluse's northern cliff collapsed and dammed the valley. Its deep-set position, low sunshine and the purity of its water made it, in the 19th century, a natural ice reserve. In 1864 Joachim Moinat, a lemonade maker in Nantua, began cutting ice here for his customers, then obtained from the communes of Les Neyrolles and Le Poizat, which owned the lake, the sole right to work it. In 1875 he built a warehouse with double walls insulated with sawdust; by 1879, 300 workers were taking turns day and night. The opening of the railway in 1882 and a station on the site changed the scale: in summer, 20 to 30 wagons left every day, up to 50 in 1894, bound for Paris, Geneva, Lyon, Marseille, Toulon and Algiers. In the mid-1880s Moinat sold the business to the Société des Glacières de Paris, which replaced the wooden sheds with the great stone ice houses whose ruins you see today: the largest was 140 metres long. Artificial ice, milder winters and the First World War brought the trade to an end: the last harvest took place from 30 January to 10 February 1917. Bought by the local authority in 2007, the ruins are free to visit.

Lac Genin

Lac Genin lies hidden in a Jura forest of fir, spruce and broadleaf trees, at the south-eastern tip of the municipality of Oyonnax, on the boundary with Charix and Échallon. Listed as a picturesque site on 1 March 1935, it fills a hollow in the Charix syncline, probably karstic in origin and then deepened by the Jura glacier, which left impermeable clays behind. It covers 8.15 hectares and measures 380 by 330 metres; its overflow drains south through an underground network whose entrance is visible. Until the mid-20th century, several farms worked the surrounding meadows; only ruins remain. Today the site has a public beach with lifeguards in summer, an inn with a hotel and restaurant, a campsite and a treetop adventure course. In winter, when the ice is at least 13 centimetres thick, the inn supervises skating on the lake, and divers come to train under the ice. Hiking and mountain-bike trails head off in every direction, towards Charix and its waterfalls or towards Oyonnax.

Charabotte waterfall

The Albarine rises at Brénod and runs through the Hauteville valley on the plateau before reaching the Golet du Thioux, where it plunges off the cliff: this is the Charabotte waterfall, more than 115 metres high, the tallest of the Albarine falls and one of the highest in France. It marks the start of the Albarine gorge, which then drops towards Tenay and the Ain valley. The site has been listed since 1909 as a "natural monument of artistic character", a period phrase that captures the impression it makes. Since 2002 the gorge cliffs have been protected to preserve the habitat of the raven and the peregrine falcon, and both lynx and chamois roam the area; in 2017 the Ain département designated it a Sensitive Natural Area. You view the waterfall from a viewing platform on the road down from Plateau d'Hauteville to Tenay, with a small roadside car park. Its flow varies enormously: a discreet trickle after a dry summer, a roaring curtain of brown water after the snowmelt or a spell of rain.