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High above Val Ferret the Lacs de Fenêtre lie in a charming plateau with views to the Grandes Jorasses, Mont Dolent and Tour Noir

Upstream beyond Ferret the road passes through light woodland, then emerges to open pastures loud with the clatter of cowbells. Ahead the valley seems to be enclosed by rolling green hills, while a backward glance shows a dramatic cluster of peaks and glaciers. The official roadhead lies below the dairy farm of Les Ars dessous, where the original TMB route (now relegated to variant status) descends to the river, crosses a bridge and follows a farm track as the initial stage of the climb to the Grand Col Ferret (2½hrs) and the Italian side of Mont Blanc.

Meanwhile, on the other (east) side of the valley, a track winds up the hillside above the farm, and later becomes a footpath which leads onto an utterly charming plateau graced by the Lacs de Fenêtre at a little under 2500m. Reached in 2–2½hrs from Ferret, the first of these lakes presents a matchless foreground to a view of the Grandes Jorasses, Mont Dolent and the Tour Noir. To the south the frontier ridge is enticing for a different reason. In that ridge the 2698m Fenêtre de Ferret not only gives a sighting of Mont Blanc’s Italian flank, but of the Gran Paradiso range to the south; it also suggests a way over the mountains into Italy where the Grand St Bernard road can be seen descending to the plains.