Tignes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Administration
Commune of Tignes
Location
Longitude	06° 54' 50" East
Latitude	45° 28' 24" North
Country	France
Région	Rhône-Alpes
Département	Savoie
Arrondissement	Albertville
Canton	Canton de Bourg-Saint-Maurice
Statistics
Altitude	1440 m–3747 m (avg. 1810 m)
Land area¹	81,63 km²
Population² (1999)	2220
- Density ()	27/km²
Miscellaneous
INSEE/Postal code	73296/ 73320
¹ French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km² (0.386 sq. mi. or 247 acres) and river estuaries.
² Population sans doubles comptes: single count of residents of multiple communes (e.g. students and military personnel).

A ski lift on the Grande Motte.

Tignes is a commune of the Savoie département, in France.

It is also a ski resort near Val d'Isère in the "Espace Killy" ski area.

1 Villages
2 The Dam (barrage des Tignes)
3 The Ski Resort
4 Grande Motte glacier
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Villages

Tignes comprises of 5 Villages; Val Claret, Tignes le Lac, Le Lavachet, Tignes Les Boisses and Tignes-les-Brévières. The first three are close together at 2100m and Les Boisses and Les Brevieres are further down the valley, above and below the dam repectively. Le Brevieres is an old village whereas all the others were created as part of the Dam construction or development of the ski resort. All villages are part of the ski resort known as Tignes.

[edit] The Dam (barrage des Tignes)

The original village of Tignes was in the Isere valley below Val d'Isere. After the second world war France needed electricity and it was decided to build a hydro electric dam in the Isere valley. Whilst this was a great achievement for French engineering and was for the greater good of France, it very sadly meant that the old village of Tignes was drowned. The dam was completed and village was consigned to the waters in 1952. A replica of the original church was created in Tignes les Boisses. Once every 10 years the lake behind the dam (Lac de Chevreuil) is drained for maintenance work and the remains of old village become visible.

[edit] The Ski Resort

After the loss of the old village it was decided to develop a ski resort at the higher lake (Le Lac). This was surrounded by a bowl that is ideal for skiing and is headed by the Grand Motte glacier. The resort was developed largely during the 1960's and the building style reflects what was regarded as good building design at that time. In recent years the town has worked hard to improve the look of the new villages with some success.

The lift company STGM are continually investing to improve the quality of lifts in the resort and queues are mostly avoided by the use of fast 6 or 8 man chairs. They have also invested over the past few years in snow making equipment to create good bases for the pistes even in the early season.

[edit] Grande Motte glacier

Due to presence of the Grande Motte glacier, Tignes used to offer year-round skiing. However, the glacier has been receding over the last decades and now closes for a few weeks each year. As of 2005 the glacier had shrunk by around 25 vertical metres (80 feet) compared to a 1982 survey. It seems likely that the glacier will eventually split into two by the rock spurs which are starting to become visible.