PLATEAU DE SOLAISON AND CYCLING
Although the Plateau de Solaison has not yet hosted the Tour de France, it has already made a name for itself in the Critérium du Dauphiné (now the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes), hosting the final stages in 2017 and 2022. Last year, Jonas Vingegaard triumphed ahead of Primoz Roglic and Ben O'Connor but was unable to knock the Slovenian off the top spot in the final classification. Five years earlier, another Dane, Jakob Fuglsang, had achieved a double victory, snatching the leader's jersey from Australia's Richie Porte on the last day of the race by just ten seconds. He did it again in 2019, his best year, as Fuglsang won Liège-Bastogne-Liège in addition to the Dauphiné. Now retired, the Dane achieved his best result in the Tour de France in 2013 (7th).
SOLAISON PLATEAU
Plateau de Solaison
Above the village of Brison, the Solaison plateau is located at an altitude of 1,500 metres in the heart of nature, nestled between the Pointe d'Andey and the Leschaux rocks. It is home to mountain pastures in summer and transforms into a ski area in winter in a preserved wilderness setting. It comprises around fifty scattered mountain chalets, now residential, which bear witness to a pastoral tradition and were once directly linked to the agricultural activities of the commune of Brison.
La Fruitière holiday cottage
Located in the commune of Brison, in Haute Savoie, the former dairy on the Solaison plateau was converted into a group gîte in the early 1990s. The gîte, which is open all year round, can sleep thirty-six people and prepares meals for groups of eight to thirty-six.
Saint-Théodule Church in Brizon
Construction: 1480, then 1852 for the current church.
Style: Sardinian neoclassical.
History: a first chapel was built around 1480 and dedicated to Our Lady, then to Theodore of Octodure. The current church was rebuilt on this former site between 1850 and 1852, according to the plans of architect Ernesto Melano. The building is unusual in that the choir faces west rather than east, as is customary.
Pointe d'Andey
This mountain is located in the north of the Bornes massif. It is surrounded by the Arve Valley, home to the towns of Bonneville and Saint-Pierre-en-Faucigny to the north, the Borne Valley and the Evaux Gorges to the west, the Col de Solaison, which separates it from the Leschaux rocks to the south, and the Mont-Saxonnex plateau to the east. The summit, which rises to an altitude of 1,877 metres, is accessible from the Col de Solaison. The Pointe d'Andey was depicted by Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler in 1909. This painting, which belongs to the Orsay Museum in Paris, was originally called Paysage (Landscape); it is now entitled La Pointe d'Andey, Vallée de l'Arve (The Pointe d'Andey, Arve Valley) following the identification of the mountain's characteristic shape.
Rochers de Leschaux
This mountain is located in the north of the Bornes massif. It is surrounded by the Borne valley, where the village of Le Petit-Bornand is located to the west and south, the Col de Cenise to the east and the Col de Solaison to the north. The summit, which rises to an altitude of 1,936 metres, is located on the edge of the cliff overlooking Le Petit-Bornand and marks the edge of a ridge.
