Summer hike : "D'âme en hameaux"

Petit Vaujany, name given to the place where the church, the cemetery and the surrounding houses are located.Legend of a parish priest: The parish priest, wanting to produce a grandiose effect at the Pentecost mass, put a pigeon in a small room on the choir of the church, and ordered the sacristan to go up there after the Veni créator to release the bird through a small bull's eye, whose flap he would open. At the end of the service, the priest cried out: "Holy Spirit, come down upon us! " Eyes raised on the vault, with the faithful impressed...nothing appears, new imploring, ...without result, but at the third summons, made in a threatening tone, a dismayed voice answers from above: " he is dead! "

In the past, it was the only path that linked the hamlets to Vaujany. It links the small Vaujany, the place of the church and the cemetery, to the other hamlets.You take the downhill path known as the chemin du reposoir. The coffins went up to the cemetery by this path, the only one existing to link the lower hamlets to Vaujany. At this point, the men took a break, laid the coffin on the rock, and carved a cross in memory of the deceased. In some places, some initials appear.

You are in the hamlet of Le Perrier, which takes its origin from the word "pierrier".In the department of Isère, about forty names of communes, hamlets, farms, woods, rivers... bear the name of Perrier. The etymology of this name comes from the Latin "petrarium" meaning a place covered with stones, boulders or pebbles rolled by streams and rivers. Built on a site surrounded by rocks and stones, the hamlet was given the name "Pererus", which was transformed over the centuries into Perrier. Hemp was grown here for making rope. There was a time when hemp, a textile plant, was grown, sown in May and harvested at the end of September. It was used to make rope, twine and fabric, but before that it had to be soaked and macerated to extract the fibres from the stalk.

The chapel used to stand lower down, towards the centre of Flumet, but was moved during the widening of the road necessary for the passage of machinery for the construction of the Grand Maison dam, in the 1980s.Next to the chapel is the old school. Each hamlet had its own school. Young teachers who had graduated from the Ecole Normale often found themselves in the depths of the rural mountains to discover the profession and to learn the ropes!

Vaujany is proud to welcome children. A tradition from the past, since the children of the public assistance from the orphanage of the Cote Saint André were welcomed in the families and this until 1980.The siblings were grouped together in the village. There were two types of reception: year-round and during the summer season, allowing them to lend a hand in the fields (opposite the Flumet centre, there was the Saint Claude chapel, and it was there that the Pourchery vogue was held).

The old road known as "des pavés" was one of the worst in the canton, writes Abbé Bayle in his book. It runs almost in a straight line from the hamlet of Rif Jany.

Rif jany, takes its name from the stream (rif, a word certainly inherited from the Saracens). One can also read "rif" as Sur la rive. Here, in relation to the great lake Saint Laurent which filled the valley in the 11th century.Above Rif Jany is the hamlet of La Condamine: the origin of this name is to be found in the Middle Ages. At that time, the seigneuries consisted of tenures operated by a tenant and the reserve. The latter is cultivated by the lord or his farmer and is exempt from duties. In the Middle Ages, these reserves were called "Condamines" in the cartularies (collections of copies of acts attesting to the privileges of a person or a community).

Below the Contamine, people from the hamlets of Rif jany and Verney were born in the commune of Vaujany and were buried in Oz for convenience.They are called "ecuardas" (several possible spellings). A word that means those who live at the end of the country! This term is found in patois: a cow that breaks its tail is said to be ecuardée. Perhaps this name of the people comes from the fact that they live at the end of the hamlet, the tail of the commune. A little further on: the chamber of the dead, a reference to the place where the victims of the plague were buried in 1630.

Le Verney directly overlooks the lake of the same name which offers a splendid view. The land at the confluence of the Eau d'Olle and Flumet rivers was forested with vernes (a variety of alder). The hamlet takes its name from this tree.The hydrelec factory opens its museum to you. The history of hydroelectricity is presented to you. It is located at the end of the hamlet of Verney, on the lake road. In the hamlet of Verney you will pass by the old school. There was also a bistro which housed the only communication system of the time: the public telephone. In other words, there was no such thing as confidentiality. You had to ring the switchboard at the post office. If the operator was fired, she would call you back and you could ask for the number you wanted. Half an hour later you had the call! At night, if you needed a doctor, you had to wake up the landlord first, and the next day the whole village knew you had scarlet fever. The telephone became widespread in the 1970s.

The Himalayan footbridge is a recent project straddling the communes of Vaujany and Allemond.You can enjoy some time on the shores of the lake. Swimming is not allowed. A little further on towards the dam is the water sports centre.

You can either stop here, or continue some 250m further down to cross the footbridge over the Eau d'Olle, a beautiful piece of equipment that delights young and old alike, with a very nice viewpoint.