Walking in the Haute Savoie: North. Janette Norton

down the mountainsides are sprinkled with bright yellow marsh marigolds.

      Brightening up bare crevices and clinging to inaccessible rock faces are dozens of different creeping, cushiony rock plants which have lots of tiny blooms, such as saxifrages, moss campion, globularia, toadflax and rock jasmines.

      As the slopes are warmed by spring sunshine and the snows start to melt in earnest, more and more flowers appear. July and August are the time for taller plants, with lesser known varieties of gentians coming into flower, such as the great yellow gentian, from whose root the gentian liqueur is made, and a little later, spotted and willow-leaved. There are tall purple monkshood and delphiniums, graceful columbines, rose-bay willow herb, meadow cranesbills, and various types of the carrot family, including cow parsley and the star-like astrantia. There are endless varieties of daisies, including the orange splash of the golden hawksbeard, purple asters and fluffy lilac adenostyles, and dozens of different white and purple thistles with their prickly, silvery leaves. The white false helleborine, a tall yellowish-green starred flower, is frequently found around alpine chalets as it likes the nitrogen-enriched soil. Cattle never touch its poisonous leaves, although these were formerly picked and made into a potion to be used against lice and horseflies.

      Many flowers continue to bloom until the end of September and even into October. In these months you will still find harebells and other varieties of the campanula family, and if you are lucky you may spot the rare yellow bellflower (campanula thyrsoides). Small purple field gentians and bright blue fringed gentians now cover the slopes, both distinguished from the earlier spring flowering variety by having only four petals instead of five. Look out for tiny delicate cyclamens in the woods, autumn crocuses (colchicum) in the fields, and heather higher up.

      In many tourist offices and mountain refuges there are posters indicating which alpine flowers are rare and therefore protected, and in the nature reserves there are signs stating clearly that it is forbidden to pick any flowers, and certainly not to dig them up. There is nothing more beautiful than a meadow of wildflowers, especially the alpine daffodils or narcissi that can cover an entire mountainside, and nothing more heart breaking than seeing people walking along with bunches of wilted flowers in their hands.

      Autumn colours below the Pointe des Mattes (Walk 26)

      In late autumn the flowers die away, but the colour continues with bright red rowan berries and the changing leaves, with some magnificent displays of reds and yellows from beech, maple and larch. There are wild raspberries and bilberries for the picking, and in wooded areas there is also a fascinating range of fungi, the edible ones being a real French delicacy. Some of these are quite unlike any found in Britain – they are white, black, grey, purple and even a chilling green – and can normally be seen clinging to the roots of trees or hidden under mounds of dead leaves. There is also the big round red variety with white spots that reminds one of fairytales. Many of these fungi are highly poisonous and should never be eaten without checking first at a local pharmacie (chemist), where there is usually an expert who will do this willingly.

      For more information about the plants and flowers of the area, consult Alpine Flowers of Britain & Europe, by Christopher Grey-Wilson and Marjorie Blamey (Collins). You might also like Alpine Flowers by Gillian Price (Cicerone), a useful pocket guide.

Getting there

      By car

      Many of the walks in this book cannot be reached without a car. If you come by train or air, all the main car hire firms operate from stations and airports, and information about rental can be obtained before you leave.

      If you bring your own car, it is better to avoid Paris and take the motorway from Calais via Reims, Chalons, Troyes and Dijon to either Geneva or Annecy. For detailed travel itineraries and route planners, see www.theaa.com, www.rac.co.uk and www.viamichelin.com.

      The Dents du Midi from the Col de Cou (Walk 30)

      By air

      With the increase of cheap flights, flying and then hiring a car can be a more convenient way to travel. The nearest airport to the Haute Savoie is Geneva, and many of the walks in this guide are within an hour’s drive of the city. EasyJet flies to Geneva several times a day from various UK airports (www.easyjet.co.uk), as do British Airways (www.britishairways.com), Swiss (www.swiss.com) and Flybe (www.flybe.com).

      If you hire a car from Geneva Airport, check the situation with your rental company or arrange to do so from the French side as recently introduced regulations may prohibit cars hired in Switzerland from being taken into EU countries.

      By rail

      If you contact the English office of the French Railways at RailEurope (www.raileurope.com), they will send an informative brochure outlining the different ways to get to France by rail, including timetables, cost, car hire and so on.

      There are frequent high-speed trains with Eurostar to Lille or Paris, where you can catch a TGV train to arrive in Geneva in three hours or Annecy in four hours. For further information, including online booking, timetables, destinations and costs contact www.eurostar.com. Another useful website for European train travel is www.seat61.com (just click on France).

When to go

      Snow lingering into springtime at the Col d’Ubine (Walk 23): photo Richard Saynor

      The Haute Savoie climate is more continental than temperate Britain, which means the winters are colder and the summers hotter. However, mountains generate their own weather, and you can be in brilliant sunshine lower down and climb up into dense cloud and even rain as you get higher. It is always important to check the local weather forecast before setting off on a walk.

      Since some of the walks in this guide are at lower altitudes, they can be done as early as May or June, when the weather can be warm and sunny and the days start to lengthen. Another advantage to this time is that many of the alpine flowers are in full bloom, and there are fewer tourists. However, be careful to choose a suitable walk as there can still be snow on the northern slopes or at higher altitudes until the beginning of July in some years.

      The best time for walking anywhere in the Alps is from mid-June to mid-September, when it is often hot and sunny and the days are longer. The snow will have melted from the upper trails, the lifts are working, the mountain refuges are open, and the slopes are covered with flowers. However, the weather cannot be relied on to be always sunny, and you can have day after day of rain, and sometimes heavy thunderstorms, especially in the afternoons. The busiest holiday period is mid-July to mid-August, and it is wise to book accommodation in advance at this time.

      Another good period is September and October, when the school holidays are over and there are fewer tourists. The weather can still be warm and sunny and is often more stable, with a clarity in the air that makes the views even more magnificent. The glory of the spring flowers may be over, but you are compensated by the trees turning an autumn gold, with a variety of brightly coloured berries.

      Cloud inversion in late autumn (Walk 19)

      Often the sunny weather continues into November, and if the snow has not come early, it is still possible to do many of