The ski resort of Tignes is located in the upper valley of the Isere within the Tarentaise area of the Department of Savoie, in the Northern Alps. It is famous not only as a ski resort but also for the Dam and the man made lake Chevril that it is situated above. It is part of the Espace Killey Domain and has a population of 2,000 inhabitants, known as Tignards)
Since the 13th century the ancient village of Tignes was located on the banks of
the river Isère, at a height of 1,650 m and was principally a farming community.
It was one of those typical Savoyard villages isolated, in the far end of a
valley, until the building of the road crossing the col de l'Iseran in 1936,
thereby linking the valleys of Tarentaise and Maurienne (valley of river Arc).
Tignes was divided into Tignes Les Brevieres and Tignes itself. The main if not
only activity in the village was cattle breeding and in summer time, most
inhabitants of the village went with the cattle to the richer higher mountain
pastures, a main event in the local life which was called emmontagnée. From May
until September (démontagnée), small groups living in complete autocracy had to
organise and live in very precarious conditions.
Unsurprisingly, Tignes, as well as the other Alpine mountain villages, suffered
from emigration. Most emigrants worked in Paris as packers for the auction rooms
Rey and Drouot, a profession which is still today a Savoyard monopoly. Most of
these emigrants came back to the villages for the summer season.
The traditional life of Tignes soon changed after the Second World War. The
reconstruction of the country required a lot of electricity, and the French
national electricity company was urged to exploit the natural resources,
especially hydro-electricity in the mountains and construct a barrage at Tignes.
It was estimated that damming the river at Tignes could at the time provide in
excess of 10% of the country’s electricity requirement.
The building of an underground gallery, which had started before the war,
resumed. In May 1946, the Minister for Industrial Production gave the go ahead
for the development of the barrage at Tignes Les Brévières. The building of a
big barrage and the formation of the resulting artificial lake Chevril,
effectively doomed the village of Tignes, together with most of its hamlets to
be definitively flooded. The inhabitants of Tignes attempted to preserve their
ancestral heritage by all means, legal and otherwise, the intervention of the
military was not an uncommon event. However, on10 March 1952 the schools were
closed and on 26 March 1952, the prefect of the department of Savoie ordered to
open the floodgates and the lake filled up and the ancient village of Tignes was
lost forever.
The barrage of Tignes is 180 m high, including 20 m deep foundations. It was decorated by J.M. Pierret, who designed a 12,000 sq. m fresco called Le Géant on the external side of the vault. The artifical lake of Chevril has a maximum volume of 230,000,000 cubic m. The cumulated height of the waterfall is 1,000 m. Water moves turbines in the plant of Brévières (154,000,000 kWh per year) and is then sent down through a 15 km gallery to the plant of Malgovert (750,000,000 kWh per year).
Every 10 years the flood gates are opened and Lake Chevril is
emptied. It is not suprising that the amount of silt considerably builds up and
effects the performance output of the electricity generating station so it is
cleaned, the dam thoroughly checked and repair work carried out as necessary
before it is refilled again. During this period the old buildings of Tignes
reappear as if by magic and memories of the original inhabitants are re-kindled.
The new village of Tignes was built 6 km from the ancient one near the (natural)
lake of Tignes. The village church was built on the model of the former one.
In 1957, five years after the inauguration of the barrage, the inhabitants of
Tignes decided to set up a ski resort. The resort is located at a height of
2,100 m and consists of Tignes-le-Lac, le Lavachet and Val-Claret. Lower down
the valley at the top of the Dam is situated Tignes Les Boisses and Tignes Les
Brevierres remains as it has done at the further end of the valley.
In 1973, the glacier of la Grande-Motte (3,430 metres above sea level) was made
available for summer ski. Since 1993 The glacier is reached by the funicular
railway
With the neigbouring ski resort of Val-d'-Isère, located upper in the valley,
Tignes has set up the big ski domain called Espace Killy (after Jean-Claude
Killy, the legendary winner of the 1968 Olympic Games and promoter of the 1992
Games in Savoy). In 1992, the first Olympic official competitions in acrobatic
ski (mogles, jump and ballet) took place in Tignes, which since then has
remained a reference place for that kind of ski.
Tignes is also a famous summer resort, being located on the northern limit of
the Parc National de la Vanoise