The Trièves

Mont Aiguille

Mont Aiguille is an outlying tooth of the eastern Vercors cliffs, in the commune of Chichilianne, cut off by erosion to the point of looking like a natural fortress. Its walls drop sheer on every side, yet its summit, at 2,087 metres, forms an almost flat meadow much like the alpine pastures of the high plateaus. Long known as Mons inaccessibilis, the inaccessible mountain, it already appears in the 13th century in the writings of Gervase of Tilbury among the seven wonders of the Dauphiné. On 26 June 1492, Antoine de Ville, a captain in the king's service, climbed it on the orders of Charles VIII using ladders and hooks, accompanied, depending on the source, by seven men or around twenty, and a notary: the feat, which Rabelais mentions in his Fourth Book, is regarded as the birth of mountaineering. It was not until 1834 that a shepherd from Trésanne repeated the ascent. On 27 August 1957, the aviator Henri Giraud landed his Piper on the summit meadow. The mountain lies entirely within the Hauts-Plateaux du Vercors national nature reserve, where bivouacking on the summit has been banned since 2022. Several climbing routes lead up it, including the normal route, feasible from May to October and best done with a guide.

Monteynard Himalayan footbridges

The Himalayan-style footbridges of Lac de Monteynard-Avignonet have made the name of this lake between the Trièves and the Matheysine, 25 km south of Grenoble. The Drac footbridge, 220 metres long, and the Ebron footbridge, 180 metres long, span the gorges of the two rivers that form the lake. The full circuit, about 13 km with 400 metres of ascent, takes 4h30 combining walking with a boat crossing of the lake, around thirty minutes for €8. The tourist office advises parking on the Trièves side, at Treffort, in the Salette or Combettes car parks, taking La Mira boat to Mayres-Savel on the far shore, then heading to the Drac footbridge, climbing towards the Serre de Lavana, the most strenuous section, and dropping down to the Ebron footbridge before returning to the start by the forest path or the panoramic track. Out of season or without the boat, the out-and-back to the Ebron from the Vignes car park takes 45 minutes, and the figure-of-eight loop around this footbridge alternates between lakeshore and a hillside track. Crossing the footbridges is free; the car parks charge from May to October, and the boat only sails when the lake level allows, usually from May to October. Since 2011, the Trail des Passerelles du Monteynard has brought thousands of runners here every July.

Lac de Monteynard cruise

Lac de Monteynard-Avignonet was created in 1962 by an EDF dam built at the foot of the Sénépy: 135 metres high, 230 metres long, 5 metres thick at the crest and 20 at the base, which you can view from a lookout point. The reservoir stretches for 20 kilometres at an altitude of 500 metres, in the shape of an upside-down Y whose two arms are the Drac and the Ebron, and in fine weather it takes on a turquoise colour that turns steel grey in the rain. A thermal wind picks up almost every afternoon over its central section, which makes it, according to the tourist office, the second windiest body of water in Europe after Lake Garda, and a hotspot for windsurfing, kitesurfing and wing foiling. At Treffort, the watersports centre also offers paddleboarding, canoeing and water play for children, and the EDF exhibition space at Le Môle presents the four great dams of the Drac valley. La Mira boat runs 1h30 guided cruises, at €18 per adult, and handles the crossings for the footbridge hike. Note: swimming is strictly forbidden on the whole lake, because of the watersports and the changing water levels.

Mens

Mens emerged in Roman times as a place of trade and markets, a role that shaped its character. In the 12th and 13th centuries, hemp, wool and iron working and large livestock markets drove an economy that looked towards the southern regions. In the mid-16th century, under the influence of its merchants, the population converted almost entirely to Calvinism; Lesdiguières, leader of the Protestant armies, took refuge here in 1573 and made it one of his strongholds. Nearly two centuries of religious strife followed, along with the exile of many families to Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands. The 19th century saw industry decline, despite a silk mill opening at the end of the century. Today, the historic town lines up its cobbled lanes at the foot of the Châtel, known as Calvin's Bonnet, and lives off revitalised farming, green tourism and a lively cultural scene: craftspeople gathered in the old Bombyx factory, La Fabrique producers' shop, La Palpitante bookshop, Radio Dragon broadcasts and street-arts festivals. Here you can taste the Bouffette, a pastry made only in Mens.

Col de Menée

The Col de Menée, at 1,457 metres, straddles the communes of Percy, in Isère, and Treschenu-Creyers, in the Drôme, between the Vercors and Diois massifs. It marks the boundary between two worlds: to the north, the Trièves, its meadows and mid-altitude villages facing Mont Aiguille; to the south, the Diois, its Clairette vineyards and landscapes that already feel Provençal. You approach it from Chichilianne on the D7, a ten-kilometre climb from Mont Aiguille country; on the other side, the D120 descends for 22 kilometres to Châtillon-en-Diois. Hikers here cross the GR 965, named Sur les Pas des Huguenots, which follows the exile route of the Dauphiné's Protestants towards Switzerland and Germany. The Tour de France took it on stage 16 of the 1994 edition, between Valréas and L'Alpe-d'Huez, as a category 2 climb, with Frenchman Ronan Pensec first over the top. It makes a fine loop by car or bike from the Trièves, to combine with a tour round Mont Aiguille or a stop in Châtillon-en-Diois.

Lalley and the Giono trail

Jean Giono, the writer from Manosque, fell under the spell of the Trièves, where he regularly came on holiday, with family or with friends such as André Gide. He drew many texts from it, and his novel A King Alone is set in Lalley, where he used to stay. The tourist office quotes a passage from L'Eau Vive in which he describes this high plain of the Trièves bordered by four enormous mountains, all foaming with barley, oats and fir woods. In Lalley he met the painter Edith Berger, who became his friend and whose work now accompanies walkers: the 4.5-kilometre Edith Berger and Jean Giono trail sets up eight panels in the village and its surroundings, each presenting one of the painter's works amid the Trièves landscapes. The Espace Giono, a museum devoted to the writer, stands on the very spot where he lived, and the Musée du Trièves, in Mens, rounds off the visit with a room on the artists linked to the area. Lalley is also a good starting point for the Col de Menée and Mont Aiguille, a few kilometres away, and for the southern Trièves, facing the Obiou, the highest point of the Dévoluy at 2,789 metres.