Le Grand-Bornand

Sister cities

• Quiberon

History

* 1569: Church fire * 1715: Opening of a school * 1755: End of the dispute with neighbouring village La Clusaz on the delimitation between the territories of the two villages * 11 March 1817: Violent earthquake causes property damage * 28 October 1923: Creation of a ski club, the "société des skieurs bornandins". * 24 August 1944: 76 troops from the Vichy government's militia, condemned to death on 23 August by a court martial of the French Forces of the Interior and after a parody of a trial, are publicly shot close to the Peseretaz wood. 44 were buried in a cemetery created on the spot in the Bouchet valley. * 14 July 1987: A brutal and unforeseeable flood of the Borne river, following a violent storm over the mountain, submerges the valley and devastates in particular the campsite of Le Grand-Bornand. There are 21 fatalities and two missing persons. The commune and the State were forced to compensate the families of the victims as the campsite had been located on the river floodplain. * 11 April 2003: property developer, Xavier Flactif, and his family are killed in their country cottage in Chinaillon by a neighbour, David Hotyat. * 22 July 2004: The village is the finish for a stage of the 2004 Tour de France. Lance Armstrong wins after a stage of from Le Bourg-d'Oisans. He was later stripped of this and many other wins for doping. * 22 February 2006: Roddy Darragon wins a silver medal in a ski sprint at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and the following day, Sylvie Becaert takes the bronze medal in the biathlon. Since 1997, Le Grand Bornand is twinned with Quiberon. Researcher toponymist and Ph.D. graduate of the Sorbonne, Jérémie Delorme, has listed, photographed and described, about 3,000 place names in the commune. 90% come from Latin, 8% come from Gaulish,…

Geography

Located on the western slope of the Aravis mountain range not far from Mont Blanc, Annecy Lake and Switzerland, Le Grand-Bornand is a summer and winter resort which developed around an old village. Le Grand-Bornand is in a wide part of the valley which has allowed it to develop – the village of Petit-Bornand, located downstream, is in a narrower part of the valley. The commune of Le Grand-Bornand is made-up of three areas: the Bouchet valley, the Chinaillon valley and the village of Le Grand-Bornand located at the junction of the two valleys. The hamlet of Chinaillon to the north east of Le Grand-Bornand is the main ski centre. The valley of Bouchet is located upstream of the village along the course of the river Borne.

Most-observed species

• Common Chaffinch

  Fringilla coelebs Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,647
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,487
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,452
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,290
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,881
• Marsh Tit

  Poecile palustris (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,760
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,629
• European Robin

  Erithacus rubecula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  1,608

Most recent

• M 3.6 — 2026-01-12
  4 km SSW of Les Houches, France
• M 3.3 — 2025-05-06
  8 km W of Chapareillan, France
• M 3.2 — 2024-05-09
  9 km SW of Evolène, Switzerland
• M 3.3 — 2022-09-25
  7 km ESE of Ar?ches-la-Frasse, France
• M 4.5 — 2022-03-12
  3 km S of Faverges, France
• M 4.1 — 2021-10-05
  10 km SSW of Evolène, Switzerland