La Grave is a village-resort of 479 inhabitants (2019) located at 4,757 ft (1,450 m) above sea level on the right bank of the upper Romanche valley in the heart of the Écrins massif and at the foot of the summit of La Meije (13,070 ft / 3,984 m). Its 17th-century houses with slate roofs are made of blocks of schist or tuff bound together with an earth-based mortar. They border the trabucs (old-style alleys) that weave a narrow network up to the Romano-Lombard church of Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption at the top of the village.