Towards the high stuff

Albertville marks the start of my last week. It just remains to climb up again, skirt around to the south of Mt Blanc and drop down to Courmayeur. I'm joined by Richard, recently returned from cycling down the Rhine (google 'Rhine Cycle Challenge' - in aid of a good cause). Can't wait for the salsa in Albertville - we've got to get up the valley that leads into the area known as the Beaufortain. 

We climb up a shoulder which gives views back to Albertville and the Massif des Bauges through which I have just come. And in the distance on the left to the Massif de la Chartreuse beyond Chambéry. 

More butterflies including this large fritillary that I just can't identify - a Queen of Spain perhaps - and a Black-Veined White, a butterfly my father had always hoped to see and which probably became extinct in England in his childhood. 

We stay in a refuge with a stunning view up the valley north-east to Mt Blanc. 

And also back to the north-west. 

Down into the valley the next day. Farms, hamlets, and a fountain - unusually labelled as drinking water. 

And then to Beaufort, the small town of about two thousand that gives its name to the area. The old gendarmerie opposite our hotel. The name presumably dates to 1860-70, after the final integration of Savoy into France and before the fall of Napoleon III. 

It's my last town or village in France and it's Bastille Day. A band plays on the church steps beneath our hotel window. We take it as a send off!