Located at the upstream end of the small valley of Saint-Pierre and at the end of the motor-road, at sight or almost of the Black Glacier and the White Glacier, Pre Mrs Carle is one of the tourist jewels of Vallouise, the solid mass and the National park of the Jewel cases.
The name however does not fail to raise quantity of interrogations!
Initially, it is not a question of pre, but of a zone of stony divagation of the Torrent of Saint-Pierre, whom his various arms with the liking of their overflows traverse. Only a thicket of larches succeeded in developing at the end of the road safe from the old terminal moraine of the Black Glacier. To add to this thicket some vernes in edge of the zone of divagation, and one will have made it tower of the greenery of the sector, where the mineral thus prevails.
Then, which is this Mrs Carle who succeeded in giving her name to an uncultivated place in a completely atypical way in mountain?
In fact, it is necessary to go back to the beginning of XVIe century, 500 years behind thus, to find the answer to these two interrogations. The climate then was hotter than maintaining with extremely reduced glaciers. Black glacier and White Glacier were not to leave their higher plates. The chronicles of Chamonix, for example, indicate that the current site of the Sea of Ice was a zone of mountain pasture. The chronicles of Vallouise, they, indicate that the Pre one existed indeed, where, now, it has only stones there. It was a beautiful meadow of mountain pasture which belonged to the biens* given in 1505 by the King Louis XII to Geoffroy Carle, President of the Parliament of the Dauphine one. With died of Geoffroy Carle, his wife managed her goods and thus gave her name to this part of her properties.
Pre Mrs Carle is, without possible question, the most famous place and more visited of Vallouise. Its immense carpark, certainly made spot, but is an necessary evil to accommodate the thousands of visitors who has a presentiment of themselves there mid-July at the end of August. Because, it is the starting point of the two excursions headlights of the valley, towards the two glaciers, and, from the rise towards the Refuges of the White Glacier (2542 m) and of the Jewel cases (3175 m), which count among the most attended of the Alps. The old Refuge Cézanne (1874 m), now hidden in the thicket of larches, points out the time when, the road not existing yet, the approach of the tops were a true forwarding of several days. It is now doubled by a modern refuge at the end of the road
The summer, the carpark is covered with a great number of vehicles.
Thank you to respect indication and the carpark reserved for the guides!
The winter the access road is barred (because of the avalanches) with the tunnel of Pelvoux.
Refuge CIF of winter not kept and closed the summer!
The refuge of the white glacier: Since Pre Mrs Carl (40 km of Briançon-05 via Vallouise), one can reach in 2 hours 30 the refuge of the white glacier (with 2.542 meters, with 700 meters of uneven since the Pre one). The site is imposing, it dominates the white Glacier with a sight on Pelvoux and Ailefroide and the bar of the Jewel cases. Only disadvantage, the summer, this excursion is very attended.
The national park of the Jewel cases is one of the more big spaces protected from the alpine arc. It is a territory of high mountain which offers to its visitors filled with wonder the sublimes cold beauties at the glaciers and the comfort of its green valleys.
Place: national park of the Jewel cases
Situation: The Rhone-Alps and Paca
Y outward journey:
in car: 670 km of Paris, 100 km of Grenoble, and 180 km of Marseilles. Gap by N85, Borough of Oisans by D526, Briançon by N91
in train: stations of Briançon, Gap, Spray, or Mount-Dolphin
Information: Field of Charance, 05000 Gap - Such: 04 92 40 20 10
Some figures:
1 million visitors per annum
1973 creation date
270.000 hectares of surface
2,7 million euros of budget
On the Web: www.les-ecrins-parc-national.fr
It is a paradise for the hikers of all the levels, attracting as well sportsmen for its highest parts that a family public liking to go on its multiple paths. It should not be believed that the Park is reserved to the informed hikers: many walks are accessible to all, of which much was conceived especially to make discover the mountain with the young public.
