Yes, this is another blogpost showcasing the beauty of the French Alps. I promise to shake things up a little next post but today, I’d like to take you to a magical, shimmering lake in the clouds.
After our first relatively easy hike up the Charmant Som, we decided to follow up with something a bit more challenging — the Lac du Crozet of the Belledonne mountain range. This lake sits 2000 metres above sea level and we hiked up 700 of those metres over 2 hours. It was an excruciating climb and my muscles ached for days afterwards (remember, I’m still a hiking neophyte) but I was amply rewarded when I reached the gorgeous, turquoise splendor of the Lac du Crozet.
But this mountain lake isn’t only a place of astonishing natural beauty. It’s also a historically significant site that gave birth to the first systematic use of hydroelectric power. In the 1870s, Aristide Bergès came up with the idea of using the melting glaciers of these mountains to produce energy. An engineer and son of a papermaker who took over the family business, Bergès set up a pipeline to transport a pressurized stream of water to his wood pulp factory, thus revolutionizing hydroelectricity and giving light to the city of Grenoble. Bergès aptly named water his houille blanche, or white coal. Houille blanche went on to power Grenoble’s public lights as well as the city’s subsequent economic development. There was even an International Exhibition of Hydropower and Tourism held in 1925 at what is now Grenoble’s main park, the Parc Paul Mistral, created for the occasion and named after the mayor who presided over the event.
So yes, this place is a pretty big deal.
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