La Grave Village

Pretty but rugged La Grave is really a small climbing town, with a sprinkling of hotels and just 600 local inhabitants.

For any uninitiated visitors who happen to be driving by, the first glimpse of La Grave’s slopes is a startling sight. Dwarfed by the vastness and steepness of it all, they may pull over and crane their necks as they attempt to follow the contours of the mountain to the top. But trying to put the area in perspective is almost impossible from the road. Set in a beautiful but remote part of the Dauphiné region, this pretty but rugged village, with narrow streets and a Romanesque church, is really a small climbing town, going back a couple of centuries and built on the banks of the meandering Romanche river.

There’s a sprinkling of hotels and just 600 local inhabitants – but no conventional wooden chalets. Major fires in previous centuries have discouraged the local population from building with wood. Traditional architecture in the La Meije area is almost exclusively stone: blocks of tuff (a volcanic stone) and shale, sealed with mortar, and slate or flagstone roofs. La Grave is surrounded by a number of smaller villages and hamlets, including Les Fréaux and Le Chazelet. Villar d'Arène, at 1650 metres, is the last village before you reach the Briançon side of the Hautes Alpes. Serre Chevalier is also close by.