Every ten years or so the Lac du Chevril is drained for maintenance work to be carried out, revealing the remains of the original village of Tignes, opening old wounds and reminding people of the contentious nature of the construction of the Tignes Dam over half a century earlier. Today in Tignes, it is still possible to meet with some of the old Tignard characters who were sent to jail for their part in attempting to blow up the dam that caused their homes to be flooded.
When rumours of the dam’s construction started to circulate in the 1920’s the unsurprising reaction of the villagers was one of open hostility. The locals were mobilised and a resistance style movement was formed. The movement tried for many years to disrupt building works and did whatever they could to put a halt to the construction. Ultimately it was a futile protest, between the years of 1948 and 1952 the dam was finally completed despite the best efforts of the villagers but the bitterness of that struggle can still be felt to this day.
The compensation paid to the local community from the French government for the loss of the original village helped to build the first ski lifts and buildings in the new Tignes. The new Tignes was built at an altitude of 2100m and the main settlement became Tignes Le Lac. After the dust had settled and the 5000 construction workers, who had been housed in and around the valley, in clusters of pre-fab army style huts, gathered their tools and departed, life settled down once again. In the early 1970’s the first chair lift links were put in place, connecting Les Breviers and finally putting Tignes on the map for skiers.
The Tignes Dam, also known as the Chevril Dam was, at the time of it’s completion the tallest dam in Europe. It was built to supply hydroelectric power and was designed to generate 10% of France’s energy needs. However France developed nuclear power not long after construction, making the dam redundant, which fueled even more resentment from the Tignards who bitterly opposed the project in the first place. The dam now serves as a huge “battery” to top up the power to the ski resort in winter and in summer if resources are low.
To celebrate the 1992 Winter Olympics, Jean-Marie Pierret painted a fresco of Hercules on the dam’s face, which took him and a team of eight painters, sixty days to complete. If only the resistance movement could have enlisted Hercules in their efforts at disruption, the dam may never have been built.