La Grange au Lac, Concert hall at Evian Resort in Neuvecelle, France
La Grange au Lac is a wooden concert hall in the larch park of Évian Resort, between the Hôtel Ermitage and the Hôtel Royal. Built in pine and red cedar after mountain barns, it measures 22 m wide, 47 m long and 15 m high, with 14 identical trusses. The 260 m² stage is framed by 120 cut birches, and a suspended aluminium sheet in the ceiling prevents echo.
The venue was inaugurated in May 1993 by French Culture Minister Jacques Toubon through a partnership between BSN CEO Antoine Riboud and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. This collaboration brought together French and Russian cultural connections.
The hall hosts the Rencontres Musicales, a classical festival founded in 1976 and revived by Danone in 2014 under the Modigliani Quartet's artistic direction, held each July. Around the stage stand 120 cut birches, a nod to Rostropovich's Russian forests. Since 2012 the Maison des Arts Thonon-Evian has programmed "Musique à la Grange au Lac" from October to June with the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie in residence.
The hall sits in the larch park of Évian Resort between the Hôtel Ermitage and the Hôtel Royal, overlooking Lake Geneva. An outdoor canopy, the Préau, extends from the covered stairways and holds the ticket office, cloakrooms and a shop during concerts. The 260 m² stage is backed by a screen of dried birches.
The stage measures 260 m², not 200, and is framed by 120 cut birches brought in as a reminder of the forests of distant Russia. Six chandeliers in Murano and Bohemian crystal hang above the hall. The ceiling carries a large aluminium sheet whose placement as a sound baffle prevents echo.
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