Le Boulangeard

The history of Allemond has been marked by the mining industry and Alpine agriculture. Vieux Allemond, around the church and along the road leading to the Mairie, still has the traditional characteristics of Oisans villages.Allemond was known for its mining under Louis XIII and XIV, housing royal foundries (behind the tourist office), in which minerals mined around the village, mainly silver, lead and copper, were melted. For many years, the Hotel des Tilleuls (now closed) occupied some of the buildings of the former royal foundry. This hotel, featuring a superb walnut staircase, was bought in the 1920s by a former mayor of the village. His two daughters, Raymonde and Margarete, were well-known local characters who ran the hotel for many years. It was even rumoured that Napoleon III stayed there. Until the 1960s and 1970s, people lived very simple lives, nearly all as farmers. Then at the end of the 1970s, the Grand-Maison dam project was launched, providing a huge economic boost for the village and the region as a whole. The project lasted 10 years and brought many thousands of workers to the area. These days, the village lives mainly from tourism, both in summer and winter.

Here you are in Bourg-d'Oisans at an altitude of 700m: all around you are mountains and underfoot is the plain. This landscape has been shaped over thousands of years at the same time as the Alps were being created.The mountains you see, and the plain you walk on, are the consequences of shifting continents, the major ice ages and the subsequent warming. Humans have also helped shape this landscape over the last few centuries, adapting to and taking advantage of natural and geological constraints. The dammed rivers and the network of drainage canals, for example, have allowed the habitat to expand and agriculture to develop in the plain, creating a mountain "bocage" with fields and hedges. However, these actions have never eradicated certain natural hazards, such as avalanches and rockfalls. Half-wild and half-tamed, this landscape and its features are home to a multitude of animal and plant species, some of which are protected. Lake St Laurent: when the Vénéon-Romanche glacier retreated, it stagnated in the lower valley and a lake of more than 5,000 hectares then occupied the entire valley from Bourg-d'Oisans to Allemond. The alluvium deposited by the Romanche and the Vénéon gradually plugged up the lake and filled in the plain to a depth of 500m. In fact, if it weren't for the lake, which gradually filled in, the village would only be at an altitude of 200m! Bourg-d'Oisans is now a delightful little town of international renown where mountain lovers come, both in summer and winter, to stay and enjoy the many activities on offer!