Guided, one week hut-to-hut trek, French Alps

The Haut Savoie offers one of the most unspoilt and spectacular settings in the Northern French Alps, with spectacular views of the Mont Blanc Massif, in the adjacent Chamonix valley. The Haut Giffre valley is blessed with the Sixt-Passy nature reserve which at 92 square kilometres is one of the largest in France. The altitude span of the reserve - from 900 metres up to 3,096 metres - ensures a richness and variety of flora and fauna rarely encountered elsewhere.

The local geology of our valley - mainly soft rock such as limestone and shale - lends itself to fantastic rock formations, immense U-shaped glacial valleys and horseshoe-shaped cirques. When watching the contorted strata of an immense rock wall, it is hard to contest the tectonic plate theory and the consequent folding of the Alps!

The valley also manages to keep some of its original agriculture and we will encounter people that still do the 'transhumance' - walking up in early summer with all their livestock in order to spend a couple of months in small huts at high pasture - where cheese production still takes place.

Samoëns village
Samoëns village is the only mountain resort in France to be classed as a conservation village, which has helped it maintain its unique charm, character and a very French feel. Situated in the wide and sunny Haut Giffre valley, it is located in the heart of the French Alps, yet it's just an hour from Geneva.

» Click here to see a location map of Samoëns in the Haut Giffre, French Alps.