Vallon de La Rocheure

The Plan du Lac is a grassland lake. The banks are alive with rushes and sedges. The bottom is lined with stoneworts, edged by some broad-leaved pondweed. The lake is stocked with brown trout and schools of minnows wander here and there. It’s a good breeding ground for the common frog. The permeability of the limestone substratum leads to a significant drop in the water level at the end of the season.

The pastoral road which passes in front of the Refuge de Plan du Lac serves the various alpine pastures where the farmers graze their herds of cows and sheep. This is where Beaufort, Tome de Savoie and Bleu de Termignon are made. This road is an old communication and trade route between the valleys of Tarentaise and Maurienne, via the Col de la Vanoise that links Pralognan-la-Vanoise to Termignon. It’s the “salt and cheese road”.

Between the Dent Parrachée (3,697 m in altitude) and the Pointe de La Réchasse (3,212 m in altitude) this glacial icecap complex extends across approximately 13 km. From the Refuge-Porte de Plan du Lac, with Chasseforêt, Pelve, Arpont ... A full-scale lesson in glaciology is on offer with various glacial forms, moraines and tracks of disappeared glaciers. The tour of the glaciers can be done in 4 to 6 days over marked trails with stopping points at the refuges.

The rocky glaciers are original and spectacular forms in high altitude and latitude landscapes. They are large-scale rocky debris tongues (in the order of several tens to hundreds of thousands of square metres), with fast, viscous flows spread on the slopes, moving under the influence of the inner ice. For half a century, they have generated numerous investigations and debates that have widely affected the dynamics of mountain slopes and the environmental variations in cold environments.

Founded in the 17th century and restored in 1985 and 1997, the chapel of Saint-Jacques is a reminder of just how important religion was in these harsh and remote places. To make a visit here, Irène Rosaz is the person to ask for the keys. Her alpine pasture of Pierre Blanche is the closest to the chapel. It is accessible by a track that crosses the Doron de La Rocheure.

Inaccessible in winter and at more than 15 km from Termignon in summer, the Rocheure valley has long been farmed thanks to its quality alpine pastures. Dairy cattle for the manufacture of Beaufort, Tomme and Bleu de Termignon and small flocks of ewes for meat, the farms are primarily family-run and occupied between 15th June and early October. For the keen observer, traces of human existence over time are everywhere from alpine pasture chalets, barns, hay meadows, chapels, to engraved stones.