Parc Naturel Régional du Vercors

The Parc Naturel Régional du Vercors covers approximately 206,000 hectares of limestone plateau, deep gorges, and dense forest straddling the Isère and Drôme departments of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. The park's most dramatic feature is the western escarpment: a continuous wall of limestone cliffs rising abruptly from the Isère valley, visible from Grenoble and giving the Vercors massif its distinctive fortress-like profile. The interior plateau is a contrasting landscape of open meadows, beech and fir forests, and deep gorges including the Gorges de la Bourne and the Grand Goulet, a narrow road tunnel cut through vertical limestone walls. The village of Pont-en-Royans, where medieval houses are built directly into the rock face above the Bourne river, is among the most distinctive in the region. The park's highest point, the Grand Veymont (2,341 m), is reached via a well-marked trail from the Hauts Plateaux — a remote, largely treeless upper plateau that is one of the wildest landscapes in the French pre-Alps. Cross-country skiing is available at Villard-de-Lans and Autrans from January to March. The Vercors plateau was a major centre of Résistance activity during World War II; the Mémorial de la Résistance du Vercors at Vassieux-en-Vercors commemorates the devastating German reprisals of July 1944. Wildlife includes chamois, mouflon, black grouse, and golden eagles.