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The Villard-de-Lans Valley is formed of a large syncline of Mesozoic limestone, whose floor has been filled in by Tertiary molasse, which is itself covered by moraines or alluvial deposits from the Bourne.

The Villard Valley has a large valley floor and high Urgonian rock steps. There are two means of access (to the west by the Gorges de la Bourne and to Grenoble via Sassenage). It has all the ingredients needed for the development of a tourist resort in a large skiing area:

Grenoble - St- Nizier - Villard-de-Lans tramway line opened in 1920

first ski tow in 1931

development of a ski area after World War II

cable car from Moucherotte and luxury hotel on the summit in 1950

ski jump competition at the 1968 Olympic Games and, under the ski trails, the calcareous Vercors plateau contains an impressive karst area that has made it a leading site for speleology in Europe.

Lans-en-Vercors, which is near Grenoble via Engins and Saint-Nizier-du -Moucherotte, is the location of the headquarters of the Parc Naturel Régional du Vercors , a symbol of a lofty aspiration: to make nature one of its top priorities. The landscape opens on to the Val de Lans , which is typical of the damp valleys cradled against the massif. It is striking above all for its size, for which its sister massif in Chartreuse has no parallel. This feeling is heightened as one climbs along the uneven, twisting roads, through the hairpin bends of D106 via Saint-Nizier and D531 through the Gorges du Furon to the north and those of Bourne to the south, inevitably giving rise to an impression of space and a thirst for discovery.

The Gorges du Furon have strong points and interesting features. These include precipitous limestone cliffs interrupted regularly by enormous towers shaped like rounded-off columns, forests that cover anywhere the slope is not rocky, streams that flow through the bottom of the gorges, and even the road, a model of functional aesthetics that is itself a major landscape feature. As it winds through the valley floor the feeling of security is much more pronounced than in the Gorges de la Bourne, where it travels along the cliff face, occasionally sending shivers down the spine at the sight of dangers that are, of course, mainly in the mind.

As for Villard-de-Lans, which can be considered the capital of the Vercors, its name is well known and synonymous with pure air and holidays. It owes its reputation to tourism, which it has developed since 1920 as a small holiday capital, and subsequently as a winter sports resort, including at the 1968 Olympic Games.

The valley is renowned for its network of hiking and walking trails, which open on to large open spaces used for agriculture and for pasturing the well-known Villars-de-Lans cattle, and on to the natural spaces that surround them, from the forest timberline, whose contours highlight the regular elevation, up to the summits and rocky ridges of a mountain that could almost be described as "horizontal" (A.Sgard) and which gives the valley its calm, reposing character.

This "grand, beautiful Alpine valley" (Joanne) so close to Grenoble, is part of the first generation of low-altitude resorts, called traditional resorts , which also includes those like Autrans and Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse. These are the resorts that went through the boom in hot spring resorts and summer tourism during the first half of the last century, particularly the inter-war period, while gradually building up tourism in winter sports. What is unique and attractive about them is that they developed from a core of ancient villages, whose permanent population, though active in sectors other than tourism, also took part in developing tourism. However, this process took place over many decades, and even though these villages have maintained their original character, urbanisation and associated road systems have left them in a confused state, due to a lack of experience and genuine functionality.

The dynamics of this urbanisation have been analysed and described as being dependent on three related processes: technical progress, the rural exodus and the subsequent real estate opportunities. The first impact of a rural exodus is in general the abandonment of land on the steepest slopes, often situated between the timberline and the village. This is then left vulnerable to uncontrolled growth or box-like conifer afforestation, or to sale and the construction of tract housing. In this latter case, urbanisation quickly takes on the appearance of the same type of diffuse urbanisation seen in the plains and hillsides of the foreland. This kind of urbanisation often enough goes hand in hand with the urbanisation of the hills, which, when combined with uncontrolled growth and conifer plantations, leads to the creation of a jumble of vegetation and construction that contrasts doubly both with the upper layer of forest as well as with the patchwork of cropland and pasture land still surrounding the village. The resulting landscape impact mars the change of scenery desirable in the mountains.

With regard to winter tourism facilities, their development over several decades has led to a more fragmented ski area than in the second generation resorts like Alpe d'Huez in les Grandes Rousses and les Deux Alpes in the Oisans Massif , which were set up straightaway at the Alpine vegetation level, above the forest area. Nevertheless, these resorts are not as as picturesque, and lack the range of diversified leisure activities that the traditional resorts are still able to offer.