Albertville: Known for hosting the 1992 Winter Olympics, Albertville is a charming town at the foot of the Alps. It’s a great base for exploring the surrounding mountains and outdoor activities. Beyond skiing and hiking, enjoy the town’s vibrant culture with museums and events celebrating its Olympic legacy.
La Plagne: Know for its warm, family-friendly spirit, La Plagne offers a mix of varied slopes and quaint alpine villages. The race brings a festive buzz, complemented by mountain activities and cozy moments in local chalets. A perfect place to enjoy hearty meals and stunning views of the mountains from a typical chalet.
Auvergne-Rhône Alpes Region
Departments: Ain, Allier, Ardèche, Cantal, Drôme, Isère, Loire, Haute-Loire, Puy-de-Dôme, Rhône, Métropole de Lyon, Savoie, Haute-Savoie.
Population: 8 million
Prefecture: Lyon
Surface area: 69,711 km2
Specialities: Beaujolais, Côtes du Rhône and Savoie wines, Lyon specialities (quenelles, cervelles de canut, saucisson), potée auvergnate, Savoyard specialities (raclette, fondue, tartiflettes, diots, crozets), cheeses (beaufort, reblochon, cantal, bleu d'Auvergne, Salers, saint-Nectaire...), green lentils of Le Puy, waters (Evian, Thonon, Volvic) verbena, chartreuse. Sports clubs: Olympique Lyonnais, AS Saint-Etienne, Clermont Foot 63, Grenoble Foot 38 (football). ASM Clermont, Lyon OU, FC Grenoble, Stade Aurillacois, US Oyonnax (rugby), ASVEL Villeurbanne (basketball), Chambéry (handball), Brûleurs de loup Grenoble, Pionniers de Chamonix (ice hockey).
Competitions: women's football world cup, ski competitions (Première neige criterium in Val d'Isère), Tour de France mountain passes, Critérium du Dauphiné.
Economy: 8the European region, high-tech industries, automotive (Berliet), metallurgy, rubber, plastics, chemicals, electronics, agri-food, textiles, digital, banks, universities, administration, wine-growing. Tyres (Michelin). Design. New technologies (Inovallée). Winter and summer tourism.
Festivals: Fête des Lumières in Lyon / Nuits de Fourvière in Lyon / Quais du polar in Lyon / Biennale du design in Saint-Etienne / La Chaise-Dieu classical music festival.
Tourist attractions: Old Lyon and Croix-Rousse, Le Puy-en-Velay cathedral, Lake Annecy, Chambéry castle, winter sports in Isère, Savoie and Haute-Savoie, Cantal, spa resorts, Auvergne volcanoes. Caverne du Pont d'Arc. Château de Grignan. Grenoble Bastille. Vulcania. Parc des Oiseaux.
Website: www.auvergnerhonealpes.fr
SAVOIE (73)
Region: Auvergne Rhône-Alpes
Population: 442,500
Surface area: 6,028 km²
Number of cantons: 19
Number of communes: 273
Prefecture: Chambéry (59,629 inhabitants)
Sub-prefectures: Albertville, St-Jean-de-Maurienne
Specialities: Raclette, tartiflette, fondue, crozets (square-shaped pasta made from buckwheat flour), diots and pormoniers (pork sausages cooked in white wine), Saint-Genix (brioche with red pralines), Savoy cake, chocolate truffles, bugnes (doughnuts), génépi (mountain plant liqueur), Savoie cheeses (Tome des Bauges, Beaufort).
Sport: Chambéry Savoie Mont Blanc Handball (D1), AG2R-Citroën team (cycling), Aix Maurienne Savoie Basket (ProB).
Events: Alpine World Ski Championships Courchevel-Méribel 2023, Mountain Bike World Championships-Les Gets, August 2022. Albertville 1992 Winter Olympics, 2030 Winter Olympics.
Heritage: Hautecombe abbey (on the banks of Lake Bourget), Dukes of Savoy Castle (Chameéry), Esseillon barrier forts (Haute Maurienne), Vanoise national park, Bauges and Chartreuse regional nature parks, Lake Bourget, Lake Aiguebelette, etc.
Economy: tourism, agri-food, eco-industries, mountain industries, composite materials, information and communication technologies, metalworking, etc.
Culture: Musilac in Aix-les-Bains, Les Estivales en Savoie in Chambéry, Le Grand Bivouac in Albertville, Les Arcs European Film Festival, etc.
Websites and social networks: www.savoie.fr / https://www.facebook.com/SavoieDepartement / https://twitter.com/SavoieDepart / https://www.savoie-mont-blanc.com / https://www.facebook.com/savoiemontblancFR / @savoiemontblancFR / https://twitter.com/SavoieMontBlanc / @SavoieMontBlanc #SavoieMontBlanc / https://www.pinterest.fr/savoiemontblanc / https://www.instagram.com/savoiemontblanc / https://www.youtube.com/user/SavoieMontBlanc
Km 2.3
Km 2.3: Thénésol (Pop: 320)
Former mayor of the village, Patrick Pecchio was French kilometre champion in 1973 and is well known to cyclists in the Tarentaise region for having run a cycle shop in Albertville for over twenty years.
Km 4.8
Km 4.8: Marthod (Pop: 1,380)
Marthod is home to Aurélien Dunad-Pallaz, the 2017 European Ultra SkyMarathon runner-up and 2018 French trail champion. On 6 September 2020, he became world record holder for 24 hours of positive elevation gain. He completed the same climb 81 times in Marthod on the forest track between the Parking des Rafforts and the Alpettaz, near the Fort de la Batterie. On that day, he clocked up a total of 17,217 m of positive ascent.
Km 5.9
Km 5.9: Ugine (Pop: 7,160)
The steel industry has set the pace in Ugine since the first factory opened in 1903. During the First World War, Ugine Aciers produced half of France's steel. The decline of this activity, although still predominant with Ugitech, Areva-Cezus and Timet, has coincided with a fall in the population, from over 8,000 in 1975 to just over 7,000 today. A native of Ugine, Louis Bisilliat took part in the 1959 and 1960 Tours de France. He died in Albertville in 2010.
Km 21.9
Km 21.9: Gorges of the Arly
The Gorges of the Arly lie between the Aravis mountain range to the north-west and the Beaufortain massif to the south-east. Between Flumet and Ugine, they form the middle course of the Arly, which rises in Megève and flows into the Isère at Albertville. The particular geology of the rocks cut by the river leads to frequent landslides and rockfalls, forcing many closures of the departmental road 1,212 which runs alongside the river; the various development and repair works on this road have made it one of the most expensive in France.
Km 27
Km 27: Crest-Voland (Pop: 380)
This is the village of François Place, world ski cross champion in 2019, who also hosted the finish of a stage of the Criterium du Dauphiné in 2023, won by 2024 German champion Georg Zimmermann.
Km 35.1
Km 35.1: Les Saisies (Pop: 770 in Hauteluce)
The resort, often visited by the Tour, is a stronghold of cross-country and downhill skiing, and in particular of the Piccard dynasty, whose eldest son Franck was crowned Olympic Super-G champion in Calgary in 1988. During the Second World War, the Col des Saisies became a refuge for the Resistance. On 1 August 1944, under the code name "Ebonite", the largest arms parachute drop ever made by the Allies for the Resistance took place: 78 flying fortresses from London dropped 899 containers of weapons for the 3,000 men of the Savoy maquis. Before the development of winter sports, the pass was essentially a vast alpine pasture. The area has been urbanised since the 1970s, culminating in the organisation of biathlon competitions during the Albertville Olympic Games. The Espace Diamant ski area is shared with the villages of Les Saisies, Crest-Voland, Notre-Dame-de-Bellecombe and Flumet. The ski area has 192 km of downhill runs and 146 km of cross-country runs and is served by 85 ski lifts.
Col des Saisies (1,650 m)
Rated as a 1st category climb, Col des Saisies has been ridden fourteen times by Tour de France riders (excluding the climb up the Bisanne in 2016 on a slightly different route). The last time it was tackled, in 2023, Italian Giulio Ciccone was in the lead, as was Dutchman Wout Poels in 2021. A year earlier, it was Switzerland's Marc Hirschi who led the way at the top of a climb on the other side. In 2017, in the Tour de l'Avenir, Egan Bernal won a stage there and took the race leader's jersey.
Km 46.6
Km 46.6: Villard-sur-Doron (Pop: 710)
This pretty village in the Beaufortain is the home of Marie Dochet, eight-time Paralympic ski champion and twenty-time world champion. Above the village is the Bisanne 1500 resort, where the peloton passed through in 2016 (Rafael Majka in the lead) and in 2018 (Julian Alaphilippe).
Km 52.4
Km 52.4: Beaufort (Pop: 2,060)
Overlooking the Doron, the remains of Beaufort castle, built on the ruins of a Roman villa around the 10th century, bear witness to Beaufort's long history. Owned by the Beauforts, the King of France and then the House of Savoy, it was occupied by various religious congregations from the 16th century to the present day. Beaufort is also the birthplace of the family of writer Roger Frison-Roche, who discovered here the love of the mountains that inspired all his work before settling in Chamonix.
Beaufort
Beaufort is also famous for having given its name to a cheese produced in the Beaufortain, Tarentaise and Maurienne valleys and part of the Val d'Arly. It has had AOC status since 1968. The prince of Gruyère cheeses, Beaufort is a smooth, ivory to pale yellow cheese with an extremely fine, fruity flavour. This pressed, cooked cheese is made from the milk of Tarine or Abondance cows that graze the mountain pastures in summer. More than 10 kilos of milk are needed to make one kilo of Beaufort. Once removed from the mould, the cheeses are matured in a cellar for 5 to 12 months, regularly turned over and rubbed with a mixture of salt and cheese rind called morge. Although the region's monks and farmers have always produced cheese, Beaufort appeared towards the end of the 17th century. Already highly regarded in the mid-eighteenth century, it found its identity around 1860 when two Beaufortin carpenters invented the wooden rings that surround it.
Km 68.6
Km 68,6: Roselend dam
Construction: 1955 to 1960.
History: construction work began in 1955. When it was filled with water in 1960, Roselend, the alpine village from which it takes its name, was swallowed up (Roselend itself being the name of a former landowner: Rozelindus, attested to in the 10th century). After the Tignes episode and the Chevril dam, the valley's inhabitants did not try to oppose the works but instead sought to negotiate as best they could. The compensation paid by EDF indirectly led to the creation of the Beaufort dairy cooperative. The work was completed in 1962 and was marked by the construction of the new Roselend chapel, located near the dam site.
Characteristics: The Roselend La Bâthie hydroelectric complex produces the equivalent of the domestic energy consumption of 450,000 inhabitants, thereby avoiding the emission of 890,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. The Roselend dam is a double-curved arch dam with buttresses. Height: 150 metres. Crest length: 804 metres. Reservoir capacity of the hydroelectric complex: 187 million m3.
Km 78.5
Km 78.5: Cormet de Roselend (1,968 m)
Linking the Beaufortain valley and the Mont Blanc massif, the Cormet de Roselend has been climbed 14 times by Tour de France riders since 1979. The last rider to lead on this summit was Giulio Ciccone in 2023. In 2019, it could not be reached due to a mudslide that forced the neutralisation of the stage before the scheduled finish in Tignes.
Km 95.6
Km 95.6: Bourg-Saint-Maurice-Les-Arcs (Pop: 7,650)
From the capital of the Haute-Tarentaise, in winter you have to reach the resort of Les Arcs to take full advantage of winter sports. Numerous events attract professionals: the 2001 ski world cup, the French kilometre championships and the French ski joëring championships. Bourg Saint Maurice is also an essential starting point for mountain walks. The town is also a stage town for the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) and the Trace des Ducs de Savoie (TDS). Bourg Saint Maurice also attracts water sports enthusiasts thanks to its international white-water centre, where top-level competitions are held, particularly in canoeing and kayaking. It is the birthplace of former finance minister Hervé Gaymard (1960), chef Guy Martin (1957, 2 stars at the Grand Véfour in Paris), Jean-Frédéric Chapuis (1989, 1st French world champion in skicross, Olympic champion at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, triple World Cup winner) and numerous alpine skiers.
The town has hosted the Tour de France on four occasions. In 1939, it was the finish line for the first individual uphill time trial in the Tour de France, with the Iseran on the 64km route. Yellow Jersey holder Sylvère Maes took the laurels. In 1996, it was another time trial that led to the downfall of Miguel Indurain, who had been dropped the day before on the climb to Les Arcs. In 2009, Sandy Casar won a stage from Martigny. Finally, in 2018, Bourg-Saint-Maurice was the starting town for the 12th stage, won in l'Alpe d'Huez by Geraint Thomas.
Les Arcs resort Founded in 1968, Les Arcs is a ski resort that is perfectly integrated into its environment. Since then, it has grown steadily (Arc 1800 in 1974, Arc 2000 in 1979, Arc 1950 in 2003) to become one of the most popular resorts in the Tarentaise, with 200 km of pistes and links to Villaroger and La Plagne. The resort was listed as a 20th Century Heritage Site in 1999. In 1996, the resort hosted a stage of the Tour de France, won by Luc Leblanc.
Km 109.7
Km 109.7: La Plagne Tarentaise (Pop: 3,660)
La Plagne Tarentaise was created in 2016 from the merger of the communes of Bellentre, La Côte-d'Aime, Mâcot-la-Plagne and Valezan. Like most of the towns in the Tarentaise region, it is notable for its Baroque religious heritage. 2009 slalom world silver-medallist Julien Lizeroux and 2009 world champion and Olympic half-pipe medallist Kevin Rolland are both members of the La Plagne ski club and have links with the commune.
Km 110.1
Km 110.1: Aime-La-Plagne (Pop: 4,450)
This Tarentaise town is best known for the La Plagne winter sports resort, whose ski area covers the communes of Aime-La Plagne, Champagny-en-Vanoise and La Plagne-Tarentaise, a new commune formed in 2016. The Grande Plagne ski area offers 225km of pistes. The resort was created in 1961 by the then mayor of Aime, Pierre Borrione, to save the valley, which could no longer survive on farming alone. In 1992, La Plagne hosted the luge and bobsleigh events at the Albertville Olympic Games. Four stages of the Tour de France finished in La Plagne in 1984 and 1987 (Laurent Fignon), 1995 (Alex Zülle) and 2002 (Michael Boogerd).
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