Mont Granier, la montagne effondrée de 1248

Entremont-le-Vieux

From the Chambéry gap, the Granier shows a bare wall dominating a hummocky country, covered with vines and pitted with small lakes: Les Abymes. This relief is that of a disaster. On the night of 24 to 25 November 1248, a whole section of the mountain, then called Mont Apremont, broke away and flowed for eight kilometres. The chroniclers of the time told the story throughout Europe. Five parishes disappeared, Cognin, Vourey, Saint-André, Granier and Saint-Pérange, two others were affected, Myans and Les Murs; the number of dead, given by the medieval texts as five thousand, is brought down by geographers to one or two thousand. The mountain took the name of the village of Granier, and the village built on the debris received the mountain's old name. Contemporaries saw a punishment in it: Matthew Paris accused the Savoyards of usury and simony, Étienne de Bourbon the greed of a single man, Jacques Bonivard, who had intrigued with the pope for a priory. The legend came later: according to it, the monks driven from the priory took refuge in the church of Notre-Dame de Myans and the Virgin stopped the devils at the foot of the sanctuary. Jacques Berlioz, who has studied these texts, traces its birth to an epilogue added to the account of Étienne de Bourbon; it is attested in the pilgrim Greffin Affagart in 1533, then in Fathers Picquet in 1610 and Fodéré in 1619. Geologists, for their part, speak of karstic limestone and rain.

Wikipédia — Mont Granier ↗

Getting there : On foot only. The classic route starts from the walkers' car park at La Plagne, in Entremont-le-Vieux (D 45 from the Col du Granier or Saint-Pierre-d'Entremont): 12 km and 5 h 30 there and back for 940 m of ascent, with a cabled and vertiginous passage at the Pas des Barres; one can also climb by the cave of the Balme à Collomb or from the Col du Granier. Route passable from May to November; the north face is unstable and monitored, keep to the paths. The lower part of the mountain can be seen from Myans, Apremont and the lake of Saint-André, amid the vineyards.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound