Lac du Bourget (; English Lake Bourget), also locally known as Lac Gris (; en, Grey Lake) or Lac d'Aix (), is a lake at the southernmost end of the Jura Mountains in the

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, ...

Savoie Savoie (; Arpitan: ''Savouè'' or ''Savouè-d'Avâl''; English: ''Savoy'' ) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, Southeastern France. Located in the French Alps, its prefecture is Chambéry. In 2019, Savoie had a population of ...

, France. It is the deepest lake located entirely within France, and either the largest or second largest after Lac de Grand-Lieu depending on season. The largest town on its shore is

Aix-les-Bains Aix-les-Bains (, ; frp, Èx-los-Bens; la, Aquae Gratianae), locally simply Aix, is a commune in the southeastern French department of Savoie.

Chambéry Chambéry (, , ; Arpitan: ''Chambèri'') is the prefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France. The population of the commune of Chambéry was 58,917 as of 2019, while the population of the Chambéry ...

, the capital of Savoie, lies about 10 km south of the lake. The lake is mainly fed by the river

Leysse The Leysse is the river which crosses the city of Chambéry, Savoie, France. At its entrance into the city, it goes underground in a channel of about one kilometer. Characteristics It comes from the mountains east of Chambéry, and continue ...

(and other small rivers), and it drains towards the river Rhône through the

Canal de Savières The Canal de Savières () is a canal in eastern France. It joins the Lac du Bourget to the Rhône at Chanaz. It is long with one lock.Ramsar site. The extinct

bezoule ''Coregonus bezola'' was a species of freshwater whitefish in the family Salmonidae. It was endemic to the Lac du Bourget in Savoie, France where it was pelagic in deep water. The maximum length recorded for this species is . It is known from sp ...

was found only in this lake. The lake was formed during the last period of global glaciation in the Alps (Würm glaciation) during the Pleistocene epoch. It has a surface area of . The long and narrow north-south axis of the lake extends 18 km in length, and ranges between 1.6 km and 3.5 km in width. The lake's average depth is 85 m, and its maximum depth in 145 m. The lake is meromictic. Unlike ordinary lakes, its deep water does not mix annually with water closer to the surface. The lake is bordered by the steep summits of the

Mont du Chat The Signal du Mont du Chat is a mountain in the Jura Mountains with an altitude of 1,504 metres, in France. It is situated in Savoie, west of Le Bourget-du-Lac. Tour de France The climb of the Mont du Chat is rarely used in the Tour de France, ...

and the

Chaîne de l'Épine The Chaîne de l'Épine, in the department of Savoie in southeast France, is a long ridge of the Jura Mountains that runs north–south along the east side of the Lac d'Aiguebelette, from the Col de l'Épine west of Chambéry as far as the ...

on the west, and

Bauges Mountains The Bauges Mountains ( French: ''Massif des Bauges'') is a mountain range in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Eastern France, stretching from the city of Annecy, Haute-Savoie to the city of Chambéry, Savoie, which is part of the French Prealps. Major p ...

on the east, which form its shores. Lac du Bourget was made famous by several romantic poems of

Alphonse de Lamartine Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869), was a French author, poet, and statesman who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France. ...

, including ''Le Lac'', as well as by descriptions by

Xavier de Maistre Xavier de Maistre (; 10 October 1763 – 12 June 1852) of Savoy (then part of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia) lived largely as a military man but is known as a French writer. The younger brother of Joseph de Maistre, a noted philosopher an ...

Honoré de Balzac Honoré de Balzac ( , more commonly , ; born Honoré Balzac;Jean-Louis Dega, La vie prodigieuse de Bernard-François Balssa, père d'Honoré de Balzac : Aux sources historiques de La Comédie humaine, Rodez, Subervie, 1998, 665 p. 20 May 179 ...

, and

Alexandre Dumas Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...

Origin of the name

Named Lacus de Burgeto in 1313, its name "Le Bourget" comes from the eponymous castle, which became the main residence of the Counts of Savoy from the middle of the 13th century until the following century. Formerly, it was called "Lac de Châtillon" (Ripa laci de Castellione in the 13th century), in reference to the castle and the eponymous seigneury. It is mentioned in particular in the donation made by the Count of Savoy Amédée III in 1125, for the foundation of the

abbey of Hautecombe Hautecombe Abbey (french: Abbaye d'Hautecombe, ; la, Altaecumbaeum) is a former Cistercian monastery, later a Benedictine monastery, in Saint-Pierre-de-Curtille in Savoie, France. For centuries it was the burial place of the members of the Ho ...

, "on the shore of the lake of Châtillon" (supra ripam loci de Castellione).

Climate

Lake Bourget features an oceanic climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

: ''Cfb''), like most places in Western Europe. In spite of this, it is highly influenced by its interior position within France near several mountain ranges, resulting in quite hot summers and cool to cold winters with frequent temperatures below freezing, especially at night. The surrounding mountains such as

mont du Chat The Signal du Mont du Chat is a mountain in the Jura Mountains with an altitude of 1,504 metres, in France. It is situated in Savoie, west of Le Bourget-du-Lac. Tour de France The climb of the Mont du Chat is rarely used in the Tour de France, ...

mont Revard Mont Revard (, ) is a mountain in the Bauges Massif near Aix-les-Bains in Savoie, France. The mountain is crossed by the D913 road between the villages of Saint-Jean-d'Arvey and Pugny-Chatenod near Aix-les-Bains. The ski resort of Le Revard i ...

have a warm-summer humid continental climate (

: ''Dfb'').

Convective Convection is single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoyancy). When the cause of the convect ...

rainfall is frequent for much of the year, rendering high precipitation/day quotas. The nearest weather station is located at

Chambéry Airport Chambéry Airport or Chambéry-Savoie Airport (french: link=no, Aéroport de Chambéry - Savoie-Mont-Blanc) , also known as Chambéry Aix-les-Bains Airport, is a small international airport near Chambéry, a ''commune'' in Savoy, France. Commer ...

, less than a mile south of the lake.

References

External links

Lake of Bourget photos Tip2trip.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lac Du Bourget Bourget Bourget Ramsar sites in Metropolitan France Aix-les-Bains