Climb high enough above the village of Les Contamines and Mont Blanc is suddenly right there, close enough to look in the eye, with only a handful of walkers for company and vultures turning slow circles overhead.
That is the Haute-Savoie most people never see: the French Alps once the snow has melted and the ski crowds have gone home.
In this episode, Imogen Strickland is joined by travel writer Olly Beckett, founding editor of Mountains Magazine, who has been returning to this corner of eastern France for three decades. Together they make the case for the quieter months, when the cable cars are still running but the prices have dropped, the meadows are thick with wildflowers, and the restaurants are genuinely glad of your custom.
Olly shares the villages he keeps coming back to, from tiny Thollon-les-Mémises, the self-styled Balcony of Europe looking out over Switzerland, to lively Le Grand-Bornand with its Wednesday market, and the lakeside city of Annecy that he would happily call home. There is fondue and tartiflette, mountain huts and hot summer days cooled by a breeze, plus a proper look at how easy the region is to reach by train, and why that slower journey is part of the holiday rather than a chore.
If you have only ever thought of the Haute-Savoie as somewhere to ski, this is your reason to go back when everyone else has left.
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