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Vercors regional natural park

Vercors regional natural park

From the northern pastures to the sun-baked hills of the south,
the landscapes of the Vercors show real diversity and provide a home for an exceptional variety of animal and plant species.
A land where man meets nature: the Vercors is also marked by culture.
This astonishing mountain of beauty and humanity is protected and enhanced by the Vercors regional natural park.

VISIT THE VERCORS NATURAL PARK

A wealth of animal and plant life

Up on the mountains,

ibex, marmots and black grouse live under the gaze of the eagle owls and royal eagles. The variety of the Vercors territory provides a wide range of habitats for highly diversified animal life: 65 species of mammals, 135 species of breeding birds and 17 species of reptiles and amphibians. The Alpine snowbell and lady's slipped orchid are just two examples of the variety of plant life in the Vercors with its 85 protected species of plants.

Creating a natural reserve

Since 1985, the Hauts-Plateaux form the largest natural reserve in mainland France.
Up here, animals and plants can live away from the assaults of mankind. Only the shepherds and foresters share this unspoiled area.
To maintain the diversity of its species, the park has reintroduced the ibex and the griffon vulture. Threatened species, like the ptarmigan and black grouse, are closely monitored.
There is also an on-going campaign to take stock of the reserve's animal and plant life.

What good is a park with no barriers?

A regional natural park is an area recognised for the wealth of its landscapes and heritage.

Its goal is to protect and enhance this wealth.
Therefore, respect for the environment comes first in all uses of the territory. The park supports an economy that takes care of mankind and its habitat.
It aims to increase visitor awareness of the environment.

The Vercors regional natural park:

186 000 hectares, 10% of which, i.e. 17 000 hectares, forms the reserve.
An altitude ranging from 180m to 2341m , 68 communities, 7 sectors: Quatre-Montagnes, Trièves, Vercors Drômois, Royans Isère, Royans Drôme, Gervanne, Diois. 3 portal towns: Grenoble, Romans, Crest. 32 300 inhabitants
Proud of its history
Man has lived in the Vercors since pre-historic times,
making do with his natural surroundings. Many villages bear witness to this rural lifestyle, showing how man has learned to cope with a sometimes hostile environment. Achievements like the hanging roads hewn out of the rock are proof of this will to develop the territory at all costs. Strength and integrity are typical traits of the Vercors' inhabitants, particularly those who were to join the Resistance movement in some of its bravest acts of defiance.

Highlighting heritage and perpetuating memories

The park encourages the discovery of traditional farms,
churches, monasteries and anything else that conveys know-how: ovens, drying houses, foundries, turner's shops, etc. As well as identifying the marks that man leaves as his heritage, the park creates and develops sites devoted to key periods in the history of the Vercors: museums of pre-historic and Gallo-Roman eras and above all, the national historic site of the Resistance.