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Other fascinating spectacles are offered by brilliant clouds of butterflies which vie for supremacy in brightness – notably the metallic hues of the common blue Icarus butterfly which passing walkers cause to flutter up from their puddles. Perching on a thistle, you may also find the rare Red Apollo, pale grey-cream but with trademark black and red ‘eyes’ on its wings.

Last but not least, mention must be made of the so-called glacier flea, large numbers of which form widespread dark patches on the surface of glaciers and snow fields up to 3800m. It is one to two millimetres long, hairy or scaly, mottled brown and feeds on organic matter such as pollen carried up by the wind. Alternatively red-tinted snow may either mean sand from a far-off desert, incredible though it may seem, or cold-loving algae with a blood-red colouring.

Vegetation

An excellent place to begin admiring the remarkable array of alpine plants is the attractive 10,000m2 Giardino Botanico Alpino ‘Paradisia’ in Valnontey, established in 1955 and named after the St Bruno lily Paradisia liliastrum. Over the summer 1000 labelled alpine species flourish there and of these a good 250 are found wild in the park.