France, the Alps, 5th April, trip into the Vanoise
It is only a short drive down from Montchavin, across the valley and up a narrow road to get to the edge of the Vanoise National Park, the first national park to be founded in France This runs over the border with Italy to become the Gran Paradiso. By the time we set out it was well into the afternoon and while there was not the deep mounds of snow that I would have liked, the road was still icy approaching the mountains and a scatter of snow appeared on the lower slopes. We parked at the end of the road and got out and walked into through the small mountain village of La Gurraz which was largely uninhabited, used probably for summer homes. A path lined with trees leads to a large abandoned dwelling which I think was once a monastery. As we were meandering around the weather came in and snow flurried down. The sky grew dark, and as it was getting late anyway we headed for the car. We got back to Montchavin to see the sunset over th...