The Prégentil headland

4 points of interest

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  Architecture

  Villard-Reymond

  Perched at an altitude à 1640 m, this is the highest village in Isère, and the second highest in France. 40 people live here today (but just six permanent residents), while there were almost 300 inhabitants 150 years ago. The fairly gentle slopes and favourable orientation gave rise to pastoral farming, despite the high altitude. The farmers used to work at the Ornon slate works, the women worked at home for glove-makers in Grenoble. Access to the valleys has always been difficult, and in 1960 a cable car was used to take cattle down into the Bourg d’Oisans plain. Today, people live in and visit Villard-Reymond for the quality of its environment.

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  Fauna

  Black woodpecker

  This strange bird with a red crown and long pale beak is the biggest woodpecker in the Alps. He is difficult to spot, being very solitary and shy. You are more likely to hear his loud song and calls, which are very distinctive. Holes in tree trunks, shavings at their bases, claw marks in the bark... all signs of his presence. He incessantly drums on the trunk to defend his territory or to dislodge bark beetles or carpenter ants.

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  Fauna

  Eurasian pygmy owl

  A small owl living in original boreal forest, it nests in stands of conifers where black woodpeckers and spotted woodpeckers have left their nests. At dusk, it hunts small mammals and nestlings. During the day, hidden and motionless in its nest or in clumps of lichen hanging from the branches of fir trees, it dozes but keeps a watchful eye on you without you being aware of it.

• 

  Fauna

  Golden eagle

  This protected bird of prey is one of the rarest in Europe. You are most likely to spot on at the hottest time of the day, when you might notice its silhouette high in the sky as it twists and turns in pursuit of its prey. The Lignarre valley is the territory of a pair of golden eagles, which you can sometimes see when the sun is high in the sky. The pair do not produce young every year, sometimes preferring to glide through the air rather than prepare for the arrival of chicks. And then one year, the female will lay two eggs, which are incubated primarily by her. Very often only one eaglet survives. It fledges in late July, identifiable by white at the base of its tail and white wing markings.