Avignonet

Avignonet (French pronunciation: [aviɲɔnɛ]) is a commune in the Isère department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of south-eastern France.

Avignonet
Commune
Monteynard Lake on the border with Monteynard
Location of Avignonet
Avignonet Avignonet
Coordinates: 44°57′35″N 5°39′28″E
Country	France
Region	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Department	Isère
Arrondissement	Grenoble
Canton	Matheysine-Trièves
Intercommunality	CC Trièves
Government
• Mayor (2020–2026)	Jérôme Fauconnier
Area 1	8 km2 (3 sq mi)
Population  (2021)	202
• Density	25/km2 (65/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code	38023 /38650
Elevation	362–825 m (1,188–2,707 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Geography

Avignonet is located some 25 km south of Grenoble and 8 km north of Monestier-de-Clermont. Access to the commune is by the A51 autoroute (E712) which passes south through the western arm of the commune and has Exit  13  Sinard on the commune border. Access to the village is by road D110A from Saint-Martin-de-la-Cluze in the north which comes down the western border of the commune to the village. The D110C goes east from Sinard to the dam through the south of the commune. Avignonet station has rail connections to Toulouse, Carcassonne and Narbonne. Apart from the village there are the hamlets of Le Cros and Le Mas in the south-east. There are large forests in the east of the commune with the rest of the commune farmland.

The eastern border of the commune is entirely formed by the Drac river and the large artificial Monteynard lake formed by the dam on the Drac river. Several streams rise in the commune and flow east to the lake including the Ruisseau d'Aiguettas, the Ruisseau de Mitraire, the Ruisseau de la Proche, and the Ruisseau des Vaux which forms part of the northern border.

Administration

List of Successive Mayors

From	To	Name
2001	2007	Camille Chatelard
2007	2026	Jérôme Fauconnier

Demography

The inhabitants of the commune are known as Avignonetins or Avignonetines in French. In 2017 the commune had 197 inhabitants. In 1962 its population peaked at 951, which was due to construction workers for the Lac de Monteynard-Avignonet reservoir.

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1793 281 —     1800 279 −0.10% 1806 291 +0.70% 1821 280 −0.26% 1831 262 −0.66% 1836 285 +1.70% 1841 306 +1.43% 1846 259 −3.28% 1851 262 +0.23% 1856 247 −1.17% 1861 271 +1.87% 1866 266 −0.37% 1872 280 +0.86% 1876 270 −0.91% 1881 233 −2.90% 1886 230 −0.26% 1891 219 −0.98% 1896 209 −0.93%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1901 376 +12.46% 1906 209 −11.08% 1911 203 −0.58% 1921 136 −3.93% 1926 132 −0.60% 1931 143 +1.61% 1936 129 −2.04% 1946 110 −1.58% 1954 112 +0.23% 1962 951 +30.65% 1968 102 −31.07% 1975 87 −2.25% 1982 132 +6.14% 1990 146 +1.27% 1999 189 +2.91% 2007 222 +2.03% 2012 203 −1.77% 2017 197 −0.60%
Source: EHESS and INSEE

Footbridge over the Drac

Culture and heritage

The Dam across the Drac

Civil heritage

• The Lac de Monteynard-Avignonet with its Dam and Hydro-electricity plant.
• Ruins of the Chateau d'Ars
• The Chateau des marceaux from the 17th century

Former Chateaux

• Chateau La Cluse
• Chateau des seigneurs du Gua

• 
  View from the lake
• 
  Escarpment on the lake
• 
  View of the lake
• 
  The view east from the lake
• 

See also

• Communes of the Isère department

External links

• Photos of Avignonet (in French)
• Bell Towers website (in French)
• Avignonet on Géoportail, National Geographic Institute (IGN) website (in French)
• Avignonet on the 1750 Cassini Map