COL DU PETIT-SAINT-BERNARD

Defended by the peaks of Mont Valaisan and Lancebranlette, the Petit-Saint-Bernard pass (2,188 m a.s.l., the lowest point in the entire north-western Alps), so named to distinguish it from the higher Grand-Saint-Bernard, has always been one of the major communication routes across the Alps. The cromlech - a circle of stones - found here is more than likely of Neolithic origin, testifying to the importance of this passageway for mankind since prehistoric times. The Romans then built the consular road across theAlpis Graja, the ancient name of the pass, linking Mediolanum (Milan, in Lombardy) to Vienne in the present-day département of Isère in France. Today, the pass appears as a linear slot in the middle of mountains with gentle, green slopes; its main features are the former hospice (which operated until the early ^20th century and was recently restored to serve as a gîte), and the Chanousia alpine garden opposite, created by the Abbé Pierre Chanoux, a passionate botanist, at the end of the 19th^century (also, like the old hospice, was badly damaged during the Second World War, and was restored in the 1970s) and finally a small lake from which gushes the Doire du Verney or, as it's known here, the Djouye dou Vernei (a patois name meaning "alder grove torrent", derived from two Celtic words).