Fontaine aux Ours - 1894 - La Chapelle-en-Vercors, France
Posted by: denben
N 44° 58.038 E 005° 24.958
31T E 690523 N 4982157
The fontaine aux ours (two bears fountain) is located avenue de Provence in the heart of La Chapelle-en-Vercors, France.
Waymark Code: WMMDN5
Location: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France
Date Posted: 09/05/2014
Views: 15
The Vercors Massif is a range of plateaux and mountains straddling the départements of Isère and Drôme in the French Prealps.
The name "Vercors" given to this massif comes from the "Vertacomicorii" a celtinc tribe living in this area when it was invaded by the Romans. During the roman rule, human occupation of this massif was limited to the surrounding slopes, principally in the Diois area.
During the middle ages, permanent dwelling and villages progressiviely appeared, starting in the XIth century. Middle age settlements started in the villages of la Chapelle, Saint Julien, Saint Martin and Saint Agnan, in what was called the "Vercors valley".
Vercors is populated by both hills animals like stag (cerf), roe deer (chevreuil), common hare (lièvre), and wild boar(sanglier); and mountains animals like ibex (bouquetin), chamois (same spelling), marmots (marmotte) and variable hare(lièvre variable). Some Corsican mouflons (mouflon) have been introduced.
Although the last brown bear was spotted in 1938 in Vercors, almost each village we visited had a bear statue or fountain.
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