Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur is a

commune A commune is an alternative term for an intentional community. Commune or comună or comune or other derivations may also refer to: Administrative-territorial entities * Commune (administrative division), a municipality or township ** Communes of ...

in the

Hautes-Alpes Hautes-Alpes (; oc, Auts Aups; en, Upper Alps) is a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. It is located in the heart of the French Alps, after which it is named. Hautes-Alpes had a population of 141,220 ...

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

in southeastern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. It was expanded in January 2013, following the merger of the former communes of

Bénévent-et-Charbillac Bénévent-et-Charbillac (Vivaro-Alpine: ''Benevent e Charbilhac'') is a former commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in southeastern France. Since 2013, it is part of the commune Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur. Population See also *Communes of th ...

and

Les Infournas Les Infournas (Vivaro-Alpine: ''Infornats'') is a former commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in southeastern France. Since 2013 it is part of the commune Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur. Population See also *Communes of the Hautes-Alpes departmen ...

Geography

The commune is located at the mouth of the valley of the high Drac on the major route between Gap and

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

(route Napoléon) next to

Écrins National Park Écrins National Park (french: parc national des Écrins, ; oc, parc Nacional dels Escrinhs) is a French national park located in the southeastern part of France in the Dauphiné Alps south of Grenoble and north of Gap, shared between the dep ...

. It is 15 km from Gap over the

Col Bayard Col Bayard (1,246 m) is a mountain pass through the Dauphiné Alps in the department of Hautes-Alpes in France. It connects the communities of La Mure and Gap. See also * List of highest paved roads in Europe * List of mountain passe ...

and 90 km from Grenoble. The commune forms a triangle of which the base is the Drac and the apex is Queyrel Peak. The landscape is primarily mountain pasture.

Climate

Located in the Haut-

Dauphiné The Dauphiné (, ) is a former province in Southeastern France, whose area roughly corresponded to that of the present departments of Isère, Drôme and Hautes-Alpes. The Dauphiné was originally the Dauphiné of Viennois. In the 12th centu ...

, Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur's climate is a mix of the Mediterranean and alpine. The average annual temperature in Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur is . The average annual rainfall is with October as the wettest month. The temperatures are highest on average in July, at around , and lowest in January, at around . The highest temperature ever recorded in Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur was on 28 July 2005; the coldest temperature ever recorded was on 14 February 1999.

Population

The inhabitants are called ''Saint-Bonnetiers''. The population data in the table and graph below refer to the commune of Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur proper, in its geography at the given years. The commune of Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur absorbed the former communes of Bénévent-et-Charbillac and Les Infournas in 2013.

Vivian Maier

Street photographer Street photography (also sometimes called candid photography) is photography conducted for art or enquiry that features unmediated chance encounters and random incidents within public places. Although there is a difference between street and cand ...

Vivian Maier Vivian Dorothy Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) was an American street photographer whose work was discovered and recognized after her death. She worked for about 40 years as a nanny, mostly in Chicago's North Shore, while pursuing ...

lived and photographed in the vicinity of Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur and

Saint-Julien-en-Champsaur Saint-Julien-en-Champsaur (Vivaro-Alpine: ''Sant Julian de Champsaur'') is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in southeastern France. Population Notable residents Vivian Maier Street photographer Vivian Maier lived and photographed in ...

. While many details of Maier's life remain unknown, she was the daughter of a French mother, Maria Jaussaud, and several times during her childhood she moved between the U.S. and France, living with her mother in the Alpine village of Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur near her mother's relations. In 1935, Vivian and her mother, Maria, were living in

and prior to 1940 returned to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...