Tour du Rutor — Stage 4: Valgrisenche → Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise

From Valgrisenche climb past the Beauregard reservoir to the Col du Mont (2,639 m), a pass of shepherds, smugglers and soldiers between Italy and France. The long descent on the French side drops through the Mercuel valley to Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise (1,051 m); just north, the alp-village of Le Monal is worth the detour.

A border stage in the full sense: for centuries the Col du Mont was the gateway between Valgrisenche and the Tarentaise — transhumant shepherds, salt smugglers and, in 1944, partisans all came this way. The climb skirts the Beauregard reservoir, whose dam drowned the village of Fornet, then ascends the Mont valley among high alps. From the col, where WWII trenches remain, you descend into France down the Mercuel valley: suddenly softer country, among alders and raspberries, to the upper hamlets of Sainte-Foy-Tarentaise. The baroque villages deserve an evening stroll.