France · FR

Mont-Cenis

The Col du Mont-Cenis is a broad, sunlit saddle in the High Alps at around 2,080 metres (6,800 ft), where the road that once carried emperors, armies and pilgrims between France and Italy now curves past an immense turquoise lake ringed by 19th-century forts. For centuries this was one of the most-used crossings of the entire Alpine chain; today it is one of the most rewarding detours in Savoie, equally loved by cyclists chasing a famous climb, by hikers following military trails among marmots, and by travellers who simply want the panorama. The pass links Val-Cenis (the village of Lanslebourg below it) with Italy's Susa Valley toward Turin, and forms the divide between the Cottian and Graian Alps. The plateau belongs entirely to France now, but the border only settled where it is today after the Second World War, and the landscape still tells that layered story at every turn—drowned chapels, Italian forts, Napoleon's road, and a reservoir so large it has swallowed the very frontier it once marked.