Les Avants

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Les Avants
State : SwitzerlandSwitzerland Switzerland
Canton : Canton of VaudCanton of Vaud Vaud (VD)
District : Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut
Municipality : Montreuxi2
Postal code : 1833
former BFS no. : 5886
Coordinates : 561 934  /  144800 coordinates: 46 ° 27 '12 "  N , 6 ° 56' 35"  O ; CH1903:  561,934  /  144800
Height : 1000  m above sea level M.
Area : 4,598  km²
Residents: 450 (2010)
Population density : 98 inhabitants per km²
Les Avants in winter

Les Avants in winter
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Les Avants (Switzerland)
Les Avants
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Les Avants is a place in the municipality of Montreux in the Swiss canton of Vaud .

location

The place is about 3 km northeast of Lake Geneva above Montreux at an altitude of about 1000  m in the Vaudois Pre-Alps . Clockwise around the town to the north are the mountain Le Folly ( 1730  m ), the pass La Forcla ( 1622  m ) and the Le Molard ( 1751  m ). To the northeast are the Col de Soladier ( 1576  m ) and the Cape au Moine ( 1941  m ). To the south of this lies the Dent de Jaman ( 1875  m ) and in between the Col de Jaman ( 1512  m ), to which a road leads from Les Avants via Jor to the east. This continental divide between the Rhine and the Rhone can only be reached on foot or by bike into the valley of the Hongrin , which flows into the Saane . To the west is the mountain Le Cubly ( 1188  m ). The southwest route des Narcisses leads to Chamby , other roads lead to the southern districts of Glion and Caux .

Les Avants has had a Montreux – Berner Oberland Railway (MOB) station on the Montreux – Lenk railway in the Simmental since 1901 . The southwestern neighbor station is Sendy-Sollard, to the east the line, which was opened in 1903, leads over Jor and the Jaman tunnel under the pass of the same name towards Les Cases and Montbovon .

At Les Avants, the Ruisseau de la Bergière stream flows into the Baye de Montreux . Les Avants is located in the southwestern corner of the Parc naturel régional Gruyère Pays-d'Enhaut , a park of national importance .

Origin of name

The name Les Avants comes from the now almost extinct local dialect of Swiss French . It is the plural of "avan", which means sal willow or rush . These plants grow well in the wetlands above the layer of impermeable loamy moraine of a glacier that formed the Baye de Montreux valley around 10,000 BC. Chr. Filled out. The German name, which is not in use today, was Schafmatten.

history

Evangelical Chapel of Les Avants
On the right the Dent de Jaman , photochromic print , published 1905
Aerial photo (1948)

In 1837 the hamlet, mainly inhabited in summer, consisted of a few houses and an inn opened by Jean-Louis Dufour. On the mule track over the Col de Jaman since the Middle Ages a. a. Gruyère cheese from Intyamon and the Pays-d'Enhaut is transported to the cities and ports on Lake Geneva. Tourism developed around Montreux around 1850 . The “ Vaudois Riviera ” was characterized by a moderate climate and the location between Lake Geneva and the Friborg Alps . In 1852 a road was built to Les Avants. While the districts near the lake experienced a strong increase in hotels such as the Grand Hôtel de Caux , the Hotel Caux Palace or the Hotel Victoria in Glion , initially only a few guesthouses settled in the old wine-growing villages on the hills. In the high mountain village of Les Avants, the Grand Hotel was built from 1873 to 1874 with a smoking room, telegraph and hot and cold baths. This caused a tourism boom, and from 1877 the hotel was open all year round. In the same year a Protestant chapel opened.

The Hôtel Jaman and other residences were added by the end of the 19th century . In 1900 the road over the Col de Sonloup to Villard was opened. At that time, Les Avants had around 50 residents. In 1901 Les Avants was connected to the rail network to Montreux by the Montreux – Berner Oberland Railway (MOB) , and two years later the line was continued to Montbovon . A Catholic church was opened in 1909, and in the following year a funicular from the train station at 974  m to the mountain station at 1156  m in the Sonloup district. Other projects such as a cable car to the Le Cubly mountain or an adhesion railway to the summit of the Moléson via the Col de Sonloup and the Col de Soladier were not implemented. A station buffet and a post office were created for this purpose. In 1914, Les Avants consisted of 60 buildings.

From 1880 there was an ice rink and toboggan runs, from 1895 a toboggan club and the first winter sports fights for foreign guests, and from 1902 a club for lawn tennis . Winter sports such as tobogganing , ice skating and skiing became more attractive, there was a downhill slope on Cubly and a ski jump in Orgevaux. The place played a pioneering role in ice hockey in particular . The ice hockey European championship in 1910, the first official international tournament for national teams, and the ice hockey tournament in Les Avants in 1911 and 1914 were held on a frozen lake . The Hockey Club Les Avants won the Swiss Ice Hockey Championship in the 1911/12 and 1912/13 seasons , as well as the International Swiss Ice Hockey Championship 1916/17 . Later players of the club were u. a. Louis Dufour and Max Sillig . In addition, bobsleigh and luge races were held in Les Avants on a seven-kilometer slope between Sonloup and Chamby . While horses initially pulled eight bobsleds up the mountain, from 1910 the funicular took over the transport. Les Avants and the neighboring Caux were among the most famous winter health resorts in Switzerland and competed with Davos and St. Moritz . In summer, from 1905, there were mountain races with automobiles and motorcycles that started in Montreux.

After the First World War , the places in the mountains played an important role in the reputation of the region around Montreux, for example with winter sports and the Fête des Narcisses in spring. Ernest Hemingway drove down the slopes in the Bob in 1923 and incorporated some of his experiences as a guest in the region in his book In Another Land . In a letter he writes about Chamby and Les Avants:

"I figure it's the finest place in the world."

"I think it's the most beautiful place in the world."

- Ernest Hemingway : letter to Isabel Simmons, Lausanne, December 1, 1922

After the Second World War , the economic situation in the entire region was problematic, plus a few winters with a lack of snow. The Hôtel de Jaman was demolished in 1945 and the Hôtel des Sports closed. The Grand Hôtel had already been converted into an international girls' school in 1938, which lasted until 1975. In 1989 a girls' school was reopened there under new management. Les Avants belonged to the municipality of Le Châtelard until it merged with Les Planches to form the municipality of Montreux in 1962 .

Today Les Avants has about 450 inhabitants. It serves as a starting point for hikes in the Freiburg Pre-Alps and is known for the daffodil fields that bloom in early May. Les Avants is home to the “Daffodil Path” and the end point of the “Cheese Path” of the Parc naturel régional Gruyère Pays-d'Enhaut . In winter, cross-country skiing , alpine skiing , snowshoeing and touring skiing are practiced . On the 515 m long stretch of the funicular between the train station and Sonloup, two carriages operate that can each transport 40 people in 6 minutes. Until 2012, the up to 54% steep meter- gauge railway was served by the signal box in the station. Since then, the station has been remote-controlled and the funicular, which is protected as a cultural asset, runs automatically. The 2.5 km long road from the mountain to the valley station of the funicular is closed to vehicles in winter and turned into a toboggan run . The freeride event Bukolik has been held on the route in autumn since 2003 for roller sports enthusiasts who can ski down the mountain with inline skates , skateboards or gravity bikes at “crazy pace” at up to 90 kilometers per hour.

Personalities

Web links

Commons : Les Avants  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Les Avants on the national map of Switzerland , map.geo.admin.ch.
  2. ↑ a b c Histore und Tourisme , lesavants.ch, accessed on March 1, 2020.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Dave Lüthi: Les Avants, une station d'altitude . In: Bulletin de l'Association Culturelle pour le Voyage en Suisse , June 2004, pp. 19–22.
  4. ↑ a b c d Exposition 2017: 150 ans de sport à Montreux . Musée de Montreux, accessed March 18, 2020.
  5. ^ The route of the Swiss Gruyère AOC . In. l'oiseau 23 December 2010, p. 25, accessed March 1, 2020.
  6. ^ Charles Knapp, Maurice Borel, Victor Attinger, Heinrich Brunner, Société neuchâteloise de geographie (editor): Geographical Lexicon of Switzerland . Volume 1: Aa - Emmengruppe . Verlag Gebrüder Attinger, Neuenburg 1902, p. 120, keyword Avants, Les   ( scan of the lexicon page ).
  7. ↑ a b Les Avants Gare MOB - Sonloup , www.standseilbahnen.ch, accessed on March 1, 2020.
  8. ^ A b R. Zehnder-Spörry, M. Laplace: Le funiculaire Les Avants-Sonloup . In: Bulletin technique de la Suisse romande , Volume 37. Issue 1, 1911, pp. 1-3, doi: 10.5169 / seals-28828 . Issue 2, 1911, pp. 17-18, doi: 10.5169 / seals-28831 . Issue 3, 1911, pp. 25-28, doi: 10.5169 / seals-28833 . Issue 4, 1911, pp. 42-43, doi: 10.5169 / seals-28836 .
  9. ^ A b Delphine Guex, Johann Roy, Géraldine Sauthier: La trajectoire historique du développement touristique de Montreux entre 1850 et 2010 . Working Paper N ° 2, Institut Universitaire Kurt Bösch, November 2012, pp. 43–44.
  10. ^ Les chemins de fer au Moléson . In: Gazette de Lausanne , June 30, 1908, p. 2.
  11. ^ En voiture pour le Moléson . In: Journal de Genève , June 30, 1908, p. 2.
  12. ^ Reto Müller: Winter sports. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . 3rd February 2015 .
  13. ↑ a b c Julie Bianchin: Le Bukolik va faire revivre le buffet de la Gare des lugeurs d'antan . In: 24 heures , August 16, 2019.
  14. ^ A b Delphine Guex, Johann Roy, Géraldine Sauthier: La trajectoire historique du développement touristique de Montreux entre 1850 et 2010 . Working Paper N ° 2, Institut Universitaire Kurt Bösch, November 2012, pp. 50–54.
  15. ↑ Ernest bobsledding, Les Avants, Montreux, Switzerland, January 1923 , two pictures, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.
  16. ^ Ernest Miller Hemingway , www.montreuxriviera.com, accessed March 1, 2020.
  17. ^ Ernest Hemingway : Selected Letters 1917–1961 . P. 76 .
  18. ^ History , école Le Châtelard, accessed March 1, 2020.
  19. ^ Evelyne Lüthi-Graf: Châtelard, Le (VD). In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . September 8, 2005 .
  20. ↑ Fredy Joss: The floral wonder of Les Avants . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , April 19, 2007.
  21. ↑ Hikes through all 4 regions of the park as well as the cheese trail Via Le Gruyère AOP , gruyerepaysdenhaut.ch, accessed on March 1, 2020.
  22. ↑ B-Objects VD 2018 . Canton de Vaud Inventaire PBC, objets B, état: 1.1.2018 (pas de changements pour 2018) / Kanton Waadt KGS inventory, B objects, status: 1.1.2018 (no changes for 2018). In: babs.admin.ch / kulturgueterschutz.ch. Federal Office for Civil Protection FOCP - Department of Cultural Property Protection, January 1, 2018, accessed on December 31, 2017 (PDF; 455 kB, 16 pages, updated annually, no changes for 2018).
  23. ↑ Activités hivernales , lesavants.ch, accessed on March 1, 2020.
  24. ↑ Roller athletes looking for a kick . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , August 2, 2005.
  25. ↑ Karim di Matteo: Le Bukolik ouvre à tous l'exigeante piste des fous à roulettes . In: 24 heures , September 7, 2018.
  26. ↑ www.bukolik.ch , website of the organizers, accessed on March 6, 2020.