Gran Paradiso Tour — Stage 7: Rhêmes-Notre-Dame → Eaux Rousses

From Rhêmes-Notre-Dame climb through the Entrelor forest and high pastures to the Col Entrelor (3,007 m), between the realms of the chamois and the bearded vulture. The descent passes the Djouan lakes and the Orvieille alp, an old royal hunting reserve, down to Eaux-Rousses (1,666 m).

You climb through the Entrelor forest — one of the Park’s finest larch woods — to the plateaus of the same name, where whole hillsides of alpenrose bloom in early summer. The Col Entrelor, at 3,007 metres, is chamois country: whole herds are often seen on the crests. The descent towards the Valsavarenche passes the Djouan and Noir lakes, dark glacial mirrors, and the Orvieille alp, one of Vittorio Emanuele II’s favourite hunting camps: the belvedere sweeps the whole valley. A long final forest descent brings you to Eaux-Rousses.