Mercantour Park: Valley of Wonders

Five days in the Mercantour national park, around the Vallee des Merveilles and its forty thousand Bronze Age rock engravings, spread across slabs polished by glaciers at the foot of Mont Bego. The route starts at Saint-Dalmas-de-Tende, reaches the Merveilles refuge at 2,111 metres, base camp for access to the engravings, then Lac des Mesches, Lac de l'Agnel at 2,400 metres, and finally Saorge, a village terraced in an amphitheatre in the Roya gorges with its Franciscan monastery. Access to the engraved zones is regulated and often restricted to visits with an accredited guide, to prevent trampling of the slabs. Poles are banned on the engraved sectors. The season runs June to October, snow blocking the passes the rest of the year.