What was summer like in the mountains?

With the summer vacations just around the corner, and no doubt for many within France’s borders, will the mountains have a place of choice among the destinations selected?

The question is not exactly new, as evidenced by some of the reports gleaned from the interactive fresco Montagnes Magiques, designed and developed by Labex ITTEM and the Institut national de l’audiovisuel (Ina). These include tourist developments on the Lac du Monteynard in Isère, toboggans and rafting to avoid “stupid sunbathing on the beaches”, an August 15 on the Mer de glace where you can experience the “deep joys of the ice floe”, and a seduction operation in the Aravis to attract 120 journalists from 30 countries to discover the different facets of summer tourism in Haute-Savoie.

Comprising some one hundred videos and posters from the collections of Ina, the Cinémathèque des Pays de Savoie et de l’Ain and the Musée Dauphinois, the Montagnes Magiques chronological fresco illustrates how tourism has transformed mountain societies and landscapes over the last century, and how television, by portraying these changes, has helped create a new image of the mountains. This project is part of the Savoirs, perceptions, représentations, et ressources (Knowledge, perceptions, representations and resources ) theme of theTransalpesa research program run by MSH-Alpes, a partner in the Montagnes Magiquesproject.

So what will we be doing in the mountains this summer? And how will the media view these activities?

Here’s a look back at summer in the mountains, before…

Un 15 août sur la Mer de Glace, report broadcast on August 22 1962 by Les Actualités Françaises (source INA)

Summer mountain activities as seen by the France 3 camera, June 6, 1986 (source INA)

Les aménagements touristiques du lac du Monteynard in Isère, France 3 Alpes report, July 23, 1990 (source: INA)

Opération de séduction touristique en Haute-Savoie, report broadcast by France 3 on July 5, 2007 (source INA)