Geology
Vercors massif dark greens and blue on the map is a group of limestone plateaus surrounded by 300m 1000 ft vertical cliffs of limestone. The transitions between the different plateaus can be of different nature: east-west oriented canyons, cliffs, or more gentle slopes. The plateaus are higher in the south eastern part of the park, with the highest point of the massif Grand Veymont culminating at 2341m. in this part of the park, the massif is bordered on the east by an almost continuous cliff along tens of kilometers.
These landscapes can be explained by a three step geologic history.
During the secondary era, the area corresponding to today's Vercors was a tropical sea, with a bottom that went deeper or shallower over time. When the bottom was deeper, clay and fine material were deposed, and became soft, easily eroded shales. When this bottom was shallow, coral reefs developed, and formed almost white, hard limestone. The two most important shallow water periods are responsible for most of today limestone cliffs: "Titonic" Titonique limestones date from mid-Jurassic and are found in the periphery of the massif. They make small cliffs and crests mainly visible in Trièves and Diois areas. "Urgonian" Urgonien limestones are the backbone of the massif, responsible for its high cliffs and plateaus, the deep and narrow canyons, and the mesa-like, even tepui-like Mont Aiguille.
During the tertiary era, the Alps surrected, and the Vercors did with them. The compression forces in here were east-west oriented, and not very strong, creating ample north-south oriented folds with a square section, and some faulting. These folds and faults are responsible for the general east-west alternance of plateaus altitudes, especially in the southern parts of the massif.
At last, the erosion that occurred since the Vercors emerged is responsible for the cliffs and canyons we see today. All the cirques and canyons are due to water erosion, as almost no glacier developed in these mountains during the quaternary glaciations. A lot of karstic erosion, that is chemical erosion of the limestone by water, is visible in Vercors. This form of erosion not only engendered cliffs, cirques and canyons, but also a lot of caves, sinkholes local name:scialet, pronounce "see-ah-leh", closed depressions French: doline, pronounce "dolin", and dry valleys. In some places, the limestone outcrops take strange forms named lappiaz pronouce: lah-pee-ah.
History
The name "Vercors" given to this massif comes from the "Vertacomicorii" a celtinc tribe living in this area when it was invaded by the Romans. During the roman rule, human occupation of this massif was limited to the surrounding slopes, principally in the Diois area. The plateaus where used only seasonally, for examples as a source of building stones quarries in the high plateaus
During the middle ages, permanent dwelling and villages progressiviely appeared, starting in the XIth century. Middle age settlements started in the villages of la Chapelle, Saint Julien, Saint Martin and Saint Agnan, in what was called the "Vercors valley".
During the XVIIIe century, the forest started to be exploited as one of the most valuable assets of the plateaus. One of the traces of those times is the name of the vertiginous pass at the bottom of the Combe Laval gorge, le col de la machine, i.e. the pass of the machine. That "machine" was a kind of crane used to lower the logs from the Vercors plateau down the then impassable 300 m high cliffs.
Wood production from the thick forests of the Vercors was also very important in the XIXe century. By the end of that century, several roads, among the most vertiginous in the world, were dug in the cliffs of the Vercors primarily for wood transportation. Although intensive, and perhaps sometimes excessive, wood exploitation was not destructive, since the most important forest of those times Lente, Coulmes are still prosperous today. This is partly due to the long term management plans used in state forests Foret domaniales in France since the XVIIe century.
During the XXe century, these mountains were used as a natural fort by the French Resistance during WWII. These resistant camps housed 400 combatants by the beginning of 1944, provisioned by locals who were mostly friendly. On June 6, 1944, the roads entering the mountain were closed, and the Vercors was declared a republic République du Vercors. In July 21, 1944, the mountain was attacked by 15,000 German soldiers by the roads, the small passes in the cliffs, and from the air. Resistants where only 3,500 at this time. 600 resistants and 200 civilians including women, childs and infants were killed, most in gruesome ways. The killing of civilians was especially horrible in the village of Vassieux, where S.S. troops killed all the inhabitants and destroyed the houses.
A lot of competitions of the Winter Olympic games of 1968 Grenoble took place in the northern part of the park, especially in the villages of Villars de Lans, Saint Nizier du Moucherotte and Autrans.
Flora and fauna
Vercors is populated by both hills animals like stag cerf, roe deer chevreuil, common hare lièvre, and wild boarsanglier; and mountains animals like ibex bouquetin, chamois same spelling, marmots marmotte and variable harelièvre variable. Some Corsican mouflons mouflon have been introduced. Nevertheless, American visitors have to expect animals, and especially large mammals to be much shyer than in the American continent.There also is a large number if bird species, due to the large diversity of biotopes in Vercors. The French chocard.com website presents the 140 bird species found in the Vercors Regional Park, with a description and a repartition map for each species.
Flora is also a mix between the alpine flora and what is found down in the plains. Among the alpine species, 28 rare or endangered species are visible, including the wild tulips, lady slippers orchids and edelweiss. More common species adorn the woodlands and meadows, such as great gentian grande gentianne, alpine gentian Gentiane des alpes, alpine linaria linaire des alpes, saxifrage same spelling and narcissus narcisse.
Understand
These mountains are a good destination for people interested in nature sports such as hiking, Nordic skiing, alpinism, and caving. It is also a good place for sight seeing, as it offers various and beautiful landscapes visible from some of the most vertiginous roads in the world.Around these mountains are more lowland regions, with sharply different climates, from the almost alpine Trièves to the rather Mediterranean Diois.Of course, as in anywhere in France, there are local food specialities, local wines, and local cheeses.
Landscapes, regions in the park
Before the end of nineteen century, the different parts of the Vercors massif where isolated from each other, and only communicated with the surrounding plains. The canyons that cut the massif, which are today some of the main communication axes, where impassable obstacles. Thus, today's Vercors was divided in at least three units: the part of the massif that communicated with Grenoble through the Furon valley Quatre montagnes, the part that communicated with Royan Coulmes, and what was called the Vercors, which was linked with the Drôme valley. This last part, the largest, is split in two halves, the western plateaus, more humanized, and the high plateaus, more high and wild.
The Coulmes area, in the north west of the massif, always was and still is the most forested area of the massif. The forest was exploited for coal making in the XIX century, especially by people coming from Italy, thus givig to Vercors one of its culinary speciality the ravioles which are some kind of ravioli See the section "eat". It also is an area where the Vercors looks more like a mountain and less like a series of plateaus, the urgonian folds being more rounded compared with western, northern and high plateaus. The coulmes can be reached through several quite impressive roads, especially the Nant gorges road, and the Ecouges road, both directly dug in the cliffs.
The Northern Plateaus of Vercors are also named the "Quatre Montagnes" that can be literally translated in "the four mountains" but rather means something like "the four villages/communities/cultivated areas in the mountains". This area is today the most developed area of Vercors for tourism, especially nordic and alpine skiing. It is a nice weekend sport destination for the Grenoble citizens. Nevertheless, traditional activities still exists there, mainly based on cattle breeding and cheese making. The four main villages of the area are reparted on two different plateaus separated by a north south forested mountain. Autrans, Méaudre, Lans and Villard de Lans both are ski resorts and host farms. This website In french... presents some very nice pictures of the northern Vercors massif, and the area surrounding Grenoble.
The Western plateaus Vercors Drômois are more numerous but smaller. Together with the high plateaus, they are what was first named "Vercors", before it became the name of the whole massif. Some of these plateaus are self evident Plateau dâAmbel, Font dâUrle, but other where dismounted by erosion Glandasse, l'Echarasson.... From these areas, spectacular vistas can be seen of the surrounding plains and other mountains. In the north of this area, several deep canyons are present. These canyon are traversed by very impressive roads, directly dug in the cliffs.
Traditionnally, the meadows of the west plateaus and the high plateaus are used as pasture in summer, according to the millenia-old practice of estive pronounced "ess-teev" or transumance pronounced "tranz-humans" . The sheeps are moved from the mountains to the plains and back every year: In winter, they graze in the plains where the temperatures are warm and the grass still green while in mountains it is burried under heavy snow, and in summer, they are brought to the mountains where the grass and the air are fresher than in the plains.
The high plateaus natural reservation is the highest, wildest and most protected area of the park. It contains no human permanent presence, no paved road, and no vehicle is autorized. The only economic activities are logging and sheep breeding see "estive". These traditional activities continue to exist because they are essential for the delicate ecological equilibrium of the high plateaus. Logging especially is not made by blank cuts of whole areas, but using the old method of the futaie jardinée gardened forest where a few trees are cut each few year, preventing the forest both to invade the pastures and to degenerate by overaging.
The surrounding areas around the massif that are part of the natural park light and yellowish green on the map can be cut in four main parts:
The Royans, in the north west, is an area of hills dedicated to cattle breeding and walnut growing. Three of the impressive vercors gorges converge toward this area: Combe Laval, the Grand Goulets and the Bourne gorge.
The Gervanne, in the south west, is an area of piedmont slopes with nice villages.
The Diois, in the south, corresponds to a part of the Drôme valley centered on the town of Die. This area has a clear Mediterranean accent, with lavender fields and vineyards producing a sparkling wine, the Clairette.
The Trièves, in the east, is a low hilly plateau below the high summits of Veymont and the gorges of the Drac river. On the west of this area is one of the rare mesas existing in France, the Mont Aiguille "needle mountain"
As everywhere in Europe, humans have greatly influenced the landscape. Today, Vercors Regional Park is inhabited by 32,000 permanent residents living in either lonely farms or in one of the more than 20 towns and villages that exist within the park.