4.

4 points of interest

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  Panorama

  View over Gap

  To the south of Champsaur, the town of Gap is the administrative centre of Hautes-Alpes, with a little over 40,000 inhabitants. It stands at an altitude of 700 m on a major communications route between Provence and the Alps, and enjoys generous rates of sunshine with large natural areas in the vicinity. In 2013, L'Equipe newspaper voted the town of Gap as France's most sports-oriented town of over 20,000 inhabitants.

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  History

  Canal de Gap

  Work began on the canal in 1864 and was completed in 1880. The canal is 28 km long, and takes its water from the River Drac, upstream of Pont du Fossé, before channelling it into the Gap basin. In today's money, it cost some 2 billion euros to build! The man in charge of the project, Maurice Garnier, a local member of parliament and contractor, went bankrupt and died in poverty, but managed to improve the life of local farmers.

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  Archaeologie

  Archaeological site of Faudon

  A quick ride takes you past the Croix Saint-Philippe to the remains of the Gallo-Roman village of Faudon, meaning mountain of fayards or beech trees) Settled during the Bronze Age by the Tricorians with a population of up to 400, in the Middle Ages this village became a stronghold for the local nobles before being abandoned in the seventeenth century.

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  History

  Old Champsaur railway line

  1912 saw the start of the Champsaur rail works, an old project for a line between Grenoble and Gap which was intended to pass through Champsaur. In service from 1932 onwards, the Mure to Corps section was an undoubted success. From Corps to Gap, the earthworks and engineering works were almost totally complete. However, the onset of the War, a lack of resources and the development of cars all brought the project to an end in 1941. Today, numerous structures along the route bear witness to this past endeavour.