Summer hike : Les Combes, introduction to nature

Opposite you, the old Villette mill, now restored as a gîte.Like the Combes mill discovered at the beginning of this route, the Villette mill was in use until after the war. Rural life in the mountains meant that people had to fend for themselves to live and eat. The resources were only those willing to grow in these mountain soils and subject to a short, beautiful season.

Across the street was the school, which housed up to 15 children. The older children sawed wood and lit the stove; the others cleaned the classroom and did other chores. Everyone's participation was required!

La Villette is a hamlet of Vaujany, which has experienced many fires, the last of which dates back to the Second World War.This is why you find houses that look rather recent. In the past the village roofs were thatched and the proximity of the houses caused fires to spread. The only means of heating was by fire. On your left you will find the old communal oven. As it was not possible for each house to have its own oven, the inhabitants used this oven. If you feel like it, you can visit the hamlet (the hamlet is small, so the visit is short!): you will find the small chapel, the little streets going up and the Côte Belle centre, which welcomes groups and schools. Traditionally, Vaujany is a resort that welcomes young people, just as in the past, children from the welfare system used to live with certain families or only came in the summer to help with the work in the fields, with the animals and with the wood.

After the well-restored Moulin de la Villette, you cross a bridge called the Pont des Chèvres. The inhabitants used to take turns to graze the animals. Each household had about 7 goats.

Espace Vaujany Museum will be a traveler, unforeseen, adventurer, discoverer ... You will be pilot, mycologist, snowmaker or musheuse. You will learn to recognize the animals in their footsteps, the small flowers to their perfumes etc ...It is an immersive space of discovery, discovering nature as historical heritage, discovering great local revolutions as challenges for tomorrow. Poly sensory, playful, we manipulate a lot of things, we look and we marvel, we learn too, and we play with family, a lot.  It is an "ageless" space for curious souls, an adventure-discovery full of emotions and surprises, actions and sensations, not least! AND WHAT ARE WE FIND? : A travel! After a spectacular and sensational arrival in Vaujany, which we will not reveal the content, you will enter no animals ... in the forest. There, before you venture, you will be given all the keys to reading this territory unique in the world: A multimedia animation will finally allow you to understand the formation of landscapes, and how the geology of Vaujany is exceptional. You will finally understand the movements of the African and European plates. At the origin of the formation of the Alps, the evolution of the reliefs, and in what they are so specific! An animated model, equipped with small optical theaters, will offer you a scholarly journey in the landscape: you will be told about aiguillettes and streams, ski slopes and all that makes up the landscape. The adventure can then begin. An immersive walk in the forest will allow you to discover all that composes it: - Wildlife: you will finally learn who lives where, depending on the environment or altitude, - The flora: an immense interactive herbarium will help you to recognize the flowers that you encounter during your walks, those hidden under your skis in winter and that delight the spring here and full boxes will reveal the secrets of pharmacopoeia as the recipe of Génépi or the spice jam of the peaks, - Mycology: you will become a savvy picker or an outstanding cook, - In the forest you can also have fun to recognize the footprints of the animals, the song of the Tetra Lyre or the grunt of the wild boar. Even the secret breathing of the trees will be revealed to you !!! A moment of pure scientific magic! The whole bathed in an extremely stenographic environment which, thanks to a deployment of immersive technologies, will make you live a real spectacle. Your walk will also lead you to meet the men and women who made and do Vaujany: Hidden in little magic boxes that will reveal their secrets, you will find the past life, with stories of elders, the enmontagnement and the first school ringtones, you hear the hawkers pass and we will remind you all the small trades that we used to practice here ... You will then switch to Vaujany today: an unspoilt village, its rules of urban planning and its construction bias, a tourist resort, its offers and its orientations. It is also where you will be unveiled the big companies or the small gestures of a daily mountain, whether to limit the risks of avalanche or to preserve the roads, you will find all the techniques and the new professions (what does a snowmaker really do, what is the life of a musheuse, etc.), through videos and interviews with inhabitants, technicians, ... enthusiasts! Finally, you will find all the local entertainment here, our parties and balls, and all that makes the charm of life in Vaujany. You will then be able to stick to the stakes of development and of the future, and after having acquired the mastery of the data of historical evolution, you exercise with the political and strategic decision-making: three "interactive walls" will allow you to approach the big ones contemporary challenges, and practice territory politics, or simply measure the impact of your own behavior. You will then come out of the enchanted and learned forest, and you can resume ... the way of the airs. Because to close this magnificent course, we decided to install a real professional flight simulator, which will give you the exceptional opportunity to learn the piloting of an aircraft flying over Vaujany and its surroundings: attention, possible crash ! Group visits by prior arrangement.