Photo : Florian Pépellin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Aussois
Aussois is a village resort in the Haute-Maurienne, in the Savoie, set on a sunny shelf on the edge of the Vanoise National Park. Its old centre, with its church and Baroque chapels, recalls its past as a mountain farming village.
The south-facing ski area lies between about 1,500 and 2,750 metres and offers varied runs. In summer Aussois is a starting point for hiking in the Vanoise, dominated by the Dent Parrachée, and for activities such as via ferrata and mountain biking.
Nearby stand the Esseillon forts, five forts built in the 19th century by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia to block the Arc valley above Modane. Fort Marie-Christine can be reached on foot from the village, making the whole a good introduction to the military heritage of the Maurienne.
