Who is the Lady of the Lake at Tignes ski resort?

On the far side of the Lac Chevril heading up to the ski resort of Val D’isere is The Lady of the Lake, or ‘La Dame du Lac’, a famous and stunning statue of a lady overlooking the lake. Why? Here we found out her mysterious past…

We’ve been past the lake many times over the past 20 years and always feel compelled to stop and take yet another photo of the lady and her breathtaking view of the lake. But why is she there? Well, in a bid to create much needed electricity after the second world war, France decided to dam the Isere river coming down from Val D’Isere and create a hydroelectric plant. This was met with heavy protests, since daming the lake meant flooding the old original village of Tignes. The village housed 60 people, a church, a school and a post office and many buildings were destroyed of course.

However, sadly it wasn’t only buildings that perished, 52 people lost their lives building the dam and more died whilst digging the underground tunnels which link the power stations. The dam was finished in 1952 but alarmingly, although expected to generate 10% of France’s electricity, nuclear power took over and the dam was virtually redundant. It is now used as a back-up source of power for Tignes.

Every 10 years the lake is drained to allow maintenance to the dam and sometimes in the summer the lake gets low enough for you to see the remains of the village. When the lake is drained you can walk through the village and even into some of the old houses. 

So back to ‘La Dame du Lac’. Legend has it that one particularly stubborn lady refused to leave her home and she drowned when the lake flooded the village. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the event in 2003, the statue was erected and it’s said it’s a representation of her watching over the village under the lake.

And have you spotted the painting on the dam on the way up too? The dam is one of the largest in Europe, at 160m high and has a huge painting of the face of Hercules, created in 1989 by Jean-Marie Pierret and 8 mountain climbers. It’s faded over the years but still recognisable.

Have you spotted either the Lady or Hercules on your way up to Tignes?