On the road

• Epierre
• Grand Cucheron Pass
• La Rochette
• Saint-Pierre-d'Entremont

Savoie department

Prefecture : Chambéry
Subprefectures : Albertville, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne
Population : 409,000
Website : www.savoie-mont-blanc.com

Tourism has been the main economic strength of Savoie for many years. With its 60 ski resorts, its three natural parks – Vanoise, Bauges and Chartreuse -, and its six spa towns - Aix-les-Bains, Aix Marlioz, Challes-les-eaux, Brides-les-Bains, la Léchère, Salins-les-Thermes – rhe department offers plenty of opportunities to visitors. Metal and energetic industries combined with cross-border exchanges accounft for a low rate of unemployment. Along with its natural beauty, Savoie also has many remains from the prestigious past of the Duchy of Savoy, the Chambery castle being the most remarkable. Savoie hosted the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville. 

• Pontcharra
• Barraux
• Granier Pass
• Saint-Pierre-d'Entremont
• Saint-Laurent-du-Pont
• Voiron
• Rives
• Beaucroissant
• Saint-Etienne-de-Saint-Geoirs

Isere department

A CHANGER

• Lens-Lestang
• Moras-en-Valloire
• Anneyron

Drôme department

Prefecture : Valence
Sub-prefectures : Die, Nyons

Mountainous in Vercors and Devoluy, close to Provence in the south, active and dynamic in the lowlands in Valence, Romans or Montelimar, Drome is a perfect summary of the Rhone-Alpes region as a whole.

Its industrial vocation – food industry, clothing, aeronautics – has adapted to the times but its agriculture remains solid thanks to quality products like its wines – Hermitage, clairette – its olive oil or truffles.

For tourists, reasons to visit Drome are many. The department borders the South of France and offers plenty of attractive sites like the Grignan castle, the Ideal Palace of postman Cheval or the village of Mirmande.

But nature might well be Drome’s most cherished treasure, in Vercors especially.

• Andance
• Ardoix
• Quintenas

Ardeche department

Prefecture : Privas
Sub-prefectures : Largentiere, Tournon-sur-Rhone

A rural department for the most part, Ardeche is the only French department without a railway station. Tourists do not seem to mind as they flock by the thousands in the summer in this preserved land, a haven for green tourism. From the gorges of Ardeche to the South, so dear to canoeists and trekkers, to the green Ardeche to the North and across the Natural Park of the Ardeche mounts and the famous Mount Gerbier des Joncs, the department offers an extraordinary variety of sumptuous landscapes.

Industry is not absent in the Rhone valley or in the North near Annonay, but agriculture remains a strength with chestnut, fruit and excellent wines such as Cornas or St Peray.