Les Brévières is the oldest and prettiest of the five villages that make up the skiing and snowboarding resort of Tignes. Situated at 1550 metres in the Tarentaise valley, the traditional Savoyarde village dates back to the 13th century when it was known as ‘Les Brenieres’ meaning ‘place where goats are raised’.
Being nestled at the foot of the Espace Killy ski area, and off the main road to Val d’Isère and Tignes, means that the village has been thankfully spared some of the more ‘avant garde’ architectural developments that blight the bigger skiing and snowboarding resorts and still retains much of its original charm. A wander around reveals traditional stone farmhouses, narrow streets and even the occasional farm animal!
History
Originally, there were just two villages making up Tignes – Les Brévières and Tignes itself. The main town of Tignes – the ‘Chef-Lieu’ – consisted of several hamlets with names that are probably familiar to regular visitors as many bars and restaurants are named after them – ‘Ronnaz’, ‘Chaudanne’, ‘Illaz’ and ‘Le Franchet’ to name a few. Both had existed since the 16th century as farming communities often running a profitable sideline in smuggling goods from Italy over the numerous mountain passes. Many of the local families have a strong Italian influence as the strongest locals would haul up to 50kg of contraband over the Rhemes-Gollette glacier via the Sassiere combe and into the Aoste valley, returning a few days later with an equally large load. Changing valleys and languages obviously had its benefits and consequently there was an exchange of brides and bridegrooms between the two communities resulting in local names such as ‘Mazzega’ and ‘Marro’ with a distinctly Italian flavour being as common as ‘Favre’ and ‘Orsiere’ which are more traditionally French. This influence also extends to the local cuisine with pizzas, jambon-cru (parma ham in Italy) and ‘Crozets de Savoie’ (a type of pasta) appearing in almost every local restaurant
The first rumours that a dam was to be built-in the valley began circulating in 1928. There followed a series of legal disputes and various government deceits which saw the original plans for a small dam and lake that would spare the village transform into a 200 metre high monstrosity that would forever change the valley and result in the forcible expulsion of over 500 largely illiterate and poor farming people from their community. By 1946 the town priest, who was the only educated person able to put up a coherent argument against the forces of the government, had been killed in the war and the battle to prevent the building work was lost. A 5-year struggle then began which saw military action being brought to bear on locals who were disrupting the construction works in a ‘resistance’ style movement that was ultimately futile. The ‘Barrage de Tignes’ was completed in 1952 and the original town of Tignes was finally lost beneath the waters of the newly created ‘Lac du Chevril’. The hydroelectric lake could, at the time, generate power for up to 10% of France, making the project of enormous importance and condemning the town of Tignes to its fate. This was not the end, however, but rather the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the valley
Monies paid to the local community from the government in damages for the loss of Tignes helped to build the first ski lifts and buildings in the new villages of Le Lac, Val Claret and Lavachet whilst Les Brévières went back to sleep recovering from the 5000 workers who had been housed in and around the valley in a series of pre-fab army style huts. This had earned the village the title of the ‘Wild West of Savoie’ during the construction as men came from all over France to earn fortunes only to lose them again gambling, drinking and fighting in the many temporary bars, casinos and brothels which had sprung up. There are rumoured to be several bodies entombed in the concrete of the dam as a result of these terrible five years. Fortunately, once the clean up was completed, Les Brévières remained largely intact and in the 70’s the first chair lift links were put in place, connecting Les Brévières with its larger sister skiing and snowboarding resorts and putting the village on the map for skiers.
Meanwhile the resort of Tignes continued to grow with lifts first serving the Palafour and Tovieres sections of the mountain expanding to eventually serve the Grande Motte, Col du Palet and Les Boisses sectors as well as linking directly to the resort of Val d’Isère to create on the of the greatest skiing and snowboarding lift systems in the World.
Facilities
Tignes Les Brévières supports the following facilities for ski and snowboard holidaymakers:
- A tabac selling English papers
- Supermarket
- Six bars catering for most tastes from a quiet drink to lively late-night partying
- Seven restaurants mainly serving traditional Savoyard food and Pizzas.
- A post office with a cash machine
- Evolution2 ski school
- ESF ski school
- Tourist office
- Ski lift pass sales centre
- An ice driving circuit
The north facing ski and snowboard runs come right into town and keep their snow usually into May, long after the ski resort closes. Two of the local restaurants are at the foot of the pistes, and make a pleasant place to stop for lunch or for a ‘vin chaud’ at the end of the day.
Val d’Isère / Tignes
A ten-minute drive or twenty-minute ski will get you to either of these internationally known ski resorts. If you like shopping expensively and mixing with a lot of rich people, then Val d’Isère is worth a visit whilst Tignes remains more down to earth with good shops and probably a more friendly atmosphere. Both ski resorts are well worth a visit at night either to eat, where as in common with much of France good food can be enjoyed quite reasonably, or to try a few of the many bars which cater to all tastes but which can be fairly pricey.
Tignes has many facilities, including banks, hospital, a sports centre, gym, mountain guiding centre, cinema, bowling alley and the not-to-be-missed ice diving club where you can be lowered into the lake through a hole cut in the ice in scuba gear! There is also an Aquatic Centre with pools, saunas, spas and water slides plus a very good gym open to the public. The Aquatic Centre has free entry to anybody with a ski pass from 2 to 15 days’ long. The gym has a modest entry fee. An International conference and sports facility was built-in 2013 containing concert venues as well as excellent sports facilities and a world-class climbing wall.
Val d’Isère has a cinema, swimming pool, lots of health clubs and gyms, massage/sauna centre, English doctor, ski-doo club, squash courts and the ice driving circuit where you can take control of a Subaru rally car on a 1Km ice circuit. It also has lots of other people speaking English, Scandinavian, Dutch and other non-French languages which may, or may not, be to your liking!
