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The Alps: between myth and reality. The complexity of the Alps has influenced the representations that they may be given, as demonstrated by the history of alpine geography from the 16th to 19th century. In each period of history, authors who have tackled this difficult subject of the mountains, have never remained strictly within the bounds of science, but have added mythical elements to their descriptions, which have acted as a kind of mirror of the ideologies and preoccupations of their time. This article attempts to provide evidence of this as a way of showing that what is not scientifically based can nevertheless be the subject of scientific reflection of a second order. Thus, by studying the works of authors such as Thomas Platter, Josias Simler, Albrecht von Haller, Horace Benedict de Saussure and Elisée Reclus, to mention but a few, it is possible to determine their appraisals of mountains, interpretations which are often a mixture of reality and myth. Although myths have changed, they persist to the extent that the Alps as an "object" continue to crystallise fascinations and generate Utopian

The Alps of Elisée Reclus. The geographer Elisée Reclus without doubt helped to shape the image of the Alps. He started to write on the subject in 1860, at a time when little had been written about the Alpine massif and when it had not been totally explored. He tried to give some form of unity to this fragmented massif, drawing on various areas of science and knowledge. In his books, aimed at the general public, Reclus offered several ways of comprehending the Alps. He attempted to reconstruct a direct, living experience of the mountains, and he also proposed a global vision of the Alpine chain, for which he sought to establish geographical laws. Finally, Reclus saw the Alpine arc as an open space, a place of fraternity and passage, and complained of the absurdity of the artificial boundaries imposed on mountain-dwellers by States.

Differentiation and geographical naming of Alpine objects: six approaches. Geographers have long pondered over the methods of differentiating geographical entities at the regional and local scales. A prerequisite of this exercice is an examination of the function of differentiation within geographical knowledge, the criteria used and the names employed for the distinct entities. In this article, the author compares the methods used by geographers studying the Alps between the start of the 1 9lh century and the end of the 20* century. A very distinct division is identified between case-by-case empirical methods, used by travellers and scholars, and much more systematic methods that reveal the use of an already highly structured disciplinary discourse.

The "val" as a laboratory of human geography? The saga of Val d'Anniviers. The author analyses the methodological project initiated by Jean Brunhes in his study of an alpine valley considered as a «small isolated world», ideally suited to a quasi-experiment. The author looks at the variations in the text, from its first publication as an article to its inclusion in a human geography manual dating back to 1910 and republished in the middle of the 1950s, and the epistemological meaning of these differences. Finally the author attempts to interpret the rereading of this classic monograph from the viewpoint of the development of a discipline and the issue of social change.

The Grenoble school versus the Paris school: the Alps as a scientific stake. Between 1910 and the 1940s, two groups of geographers, one working in Paris and the other in Grenoble, turned the French Alps into an area of research, which in the event also became a battleground. The principal focus of their scientific argument concerned the role of the theory of erosion cycles in the analysis of the formation of alpine slopes and valleys. The Parisian geographers, who subscribed to this theory, were inclined to see its manifestations in a variety of local contexts. The Grenoble geographers adopted a more empirical approach and tended to attribute an important role to glacial erosion. Their different interpretations thus highlight two different attitudes concerning theory and empirics. But the disagreement was also one involving people and «territories». The presence of numerous Parisian geographers in an area that the Grenoble group felt was theirs had a certain influence on the nature and methods of scientific debate.

A journey into the mountains of the world. Following the footsteps of Jules Blache in 1934. His article attempts to reconstruct the conditions in which Jules Blache created his work l'Homme et la montagne, published in 1934. Written on the basis of documentary sources that were at the time dispersed and incomplete, this short volume provides a comparison between "alpine type" mountains and the other mountains of the world. It is representative of a turning point in French geography, largely a legacy of the 1 9th century and explorers' accounts, but nevertheless demonstrating a rigorous and ambitious project in pursuit of knowledge. The analysis looks into the sources used, the and

Between scientific study and social commitment: Raoul Blanchard's Institut de Géographie Alpine, laboratory for the alpine economic Region. It was in 1906 that the geographer Raoul Blanchard set up the IGA (Institut de Géographie Alpine - Institute of Alpine Geography). Through his work as a university academic and his close links with a local association of Grenoble employers, the APAF (Association des Producteurs des Alpes Françaises), at the end of the First World War, he became an involved geographer active in establishing, first in people's minds, then in the delimitation of territorial divisions, the creation of a French Alps region (from Lake Geneva to Nice). Thus, in 1919, as a result of a government decision, Grenoble became the "capital of the Alps", and in 1925 hosted the Exposition Internationale de la Houille Blanche (International Hydro-Electric Power Exhibition). While a presentation on the French School of Geography, established at the beginning of the 20th century by Paul Vidal de la Blache, insisted on a more passive role for geographers, removed from urban and regional development issues, R. Blanchard, with the IGA and its journal, the Revue de Géographie Alpine, sought to give a practical dimension to his academic knowledge so that it could be of service to local economic development policies in the alpine area. In this context, Blanchard played at decisive role in shaping the imaginary in both discursive and iconographical terms, still present today, to demonstrate and give life to the values that the city of Grenoble claims to embody within the alpine massif, and even beyond that. Keywords: history of geography, local policies, urban imaginary, regional identity, active geography, scientific knowledge-popular knowledge

Italian geography and the Alps from the end of the 19h century to the Second World War. Numerous geographical studies published between 1880 and 1940 were devoted to the Italian Alps. Initially, a large majority of the studies placed emphasis on descriptions and analyses of physical geography. It was only gradually that aspects of human geography started to appear in regional monographs. The Frioulan geographer, Olinto Marinelli, was particularly innovative in this respect. Nevertheless, it is amazing that the tremendous number of geographers concerned never grouped themselves together to form a school.

Representation and knowledge of the world's mountains: the Pyrenees and the Caucasus seen through the alpine model. Although the Alpine model played an important role in the discovery of mountain areas, it has been an obstacle to the comprehension of the diversity of the different mountains of the world. It was in the second half of the 20th century that representations of mountains started to differ from the Alpine model and to acquire specific geographical features. The author demonstrates the contrasting influences of the Alpine model on representations of mountains in Europe through an analysis of its impact on knowledge of the Caucasus and the Pyrenees.

Geographers and the Austrian-Slovenia borders of the Eastern Alps in 1919-1920. Between Mitteleuropa and the Balkans. In 1919-1920, two renowned geographers, E. de Martonne and J. Cvijič, contributed to the definition of the Austrian-Slovenia border. The geographical discourse on the border is analysed by comparing it with the historian's approach and the definition of a "good border" and with the diplomatic imperatives of defining the border. A comparison of the analysis of the French geographer with that of his Serbian counterpart reveals two different approaches to the local ethnic complexity and the intermediate position of the Klagenfurt Alpine basin between the Balkan world and the Germanic Mitteleuropa.

How do the Alps fit into the geographical iconography of France? In geography books published in France since 1850, and particularly from 1870 onwards, we can observe an excessive iconographie representation of mountains. An over-representation of the French Alps can be clearly observed after 1920. From this date onwards, an emblematic imagery of the Alps was consolidated in the iconographie tradition of geographers, characterised by four recurring themes and by special formatting of the images of this mountain massif. In the illustrations found in geography books, we can trace the key moments of this mental - iconological - construction of the Alps through which a unique image has been created of a mountain chain that is both untamed and human.

Water in all its states (water, snow, ice): One hundred years of geographical research in the Alps. Throughout the 20th century, the French alpine mountains have provided the means for a very productive relationship between geographers and their field of study and research. Water in all its states (liquid forms of precipitation and torrential flows; snow and avalanches; névés, ice and glaciers), in particular, has been a constant theme in such study. Consequently a whole series of research geographers have worked on recording, describing, and explaining the phenomena they have observed unfolding before their eyes, with the aim of not only understanding such phenomena but also helping people to adapt better to their often restrictive — and sometimes dangerous - environment.