Les Lacs du Chardonnet et l'Aiguille Percée

Linger on the lakeshore awhile and look up at the mountain peaks around you… Magnificent, aren’t they? Can you recognise Tignes’ three” Great Ladies”? You can make out the Grande Motte (3,653 metres), famous for its glacier (and incidentally the resort’s logo) and its neighbour the Grande Casse (3,855 metres) with its ridgeline and much more precipitous walls. And behind you, the Grande Sassière, France’s highest peak, is accessible in the summer with no need for climbing equipment: a hike that will take you 3,747 metres above sea level!

Station de 30 000 lits touristiques, Tignes est relié à Val d'Isère par remontées mécaniques depuis 1970. Contrairement à Val d'Isère la station de Tignes ne s'est pas construite autour de son village, à cause de la mise en eau du barrage qui a noyé son village originel en 1952.  La commune a choisi d'aménager entièrement une station à 2100m d'altitude. Créée de toute pièce, elle suit le modèle des stations "intégrées" qui se développe avec le "plan neige" dans les années 1960.

Frozen over in winter (you can cross it on foot!), Tignes’ natural lake turns itself into a playground in the summertime, ideal for sportspeople, families, fishermen and food lovers… On no account to be missed: Acroland, the watersports centre’s most mind-blowing facility! Equipped with wetsuit, helmet and lifejacket, thrill-seekers slide down the 7 hot-jumping tramps on their backs, bellies, bodyboards or inflatable buoys… before finally plunging into the lake. A refreshing spectacle indeed!

This highly unusual golf course, Europe’s highest 18-holer, provides outstanding views of the Grande Motte’s glacier, the shimmering waters of Tignes Lake and the surrounding mountains, along its 5 km of fairway. An out-of-the ordinary experience, with players fine-tuning their swing among the woodchucks, who have appointed themselves the course’s guardians!

At 2,160 metres above sea level, this is Europe’s highest football and rugby ground. You may well be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of some of the world’s top teams there.

Thanks to a stop near the Lac du Chardonnet, you may be able to see the common hawker flitting about. The exclusively aquatic larva of this dragonfly takes nearly 3 years to reach maturity. It emerges from the water and sheds its skin to become a flying adult whose short life (a few weeks) is devoted to reproduction. With nearly 100 species, France has the greatest wealth of dragonflies in Europe.

Their cold clear waters served as a setting for the film "The Big Blue"!

A range of more or less discreet fixtures ensure that the ski area, roads and people are kept safe. Among the most visible from the resort are the avalanche barriers. Set along a contour line, they are designed to hold back accumulations of snow. During your walks, you’ll probably see one or more large metal pipes. They’re part of the Gazex avalanche control system, which has the advantage of being able to secure hard-to-reach areas and can be triggered remotely.

At 2,778 metres above sea level, this spectacular natural arch, Tignes’ most photographed geological curiosity, watches over the Tignes-Champagny Nature Reserve with admirable finesse.The hike from Tignes Lake to the Aiguille is a great classic, with an orientation table not to be missed out on. A loop trail of around 9 km with a 700-metre elevation gain – a 3½-hour walk. Joining the trail at the Palafour Chairlift arrival cuts 1¼ hours off the time required.

In 1992, on the occasion of the Albertville Winter Olympics, Tignes hosted the three acrobatic skiing events: ski-acro (or ski ballet), freestyle skiing and the Games’ first mogul skiing event. There are still traces of the resort’s Olympic past to be seen, including the Olympic Flame’s cauldron to the left of the Palafour chairlift and the ski-acro and freestyle skiing pistes in the Tignes Val Claret sector. And the resort’s Olympic adventure continues today: Tignes’ candidacy was officially selected by Paris 2024 as one of the preparation centres for athletes who will be competing in the next Summer Olympics and Paralympics. A source of great pride for the resort, which has always hosted top national and international teams!