Courmayeur · Italy

The Col de la Seigne

Above this hut, at the head of Val Veny, opens the Col de la Seigne, and beyond the col one is in France. It is a singular border to observe, because there is nothing there: grass, stones, a marker and the wind passing from one side to the other. It is nevertheless a line that has moved. Until 1860 Savoy was Savoyard on both sides, and the frontier between Italy and France was drawn along the Alps only afterwards. Even then not everything was settled: on the summit of Mont Blanc, a few dozen kilometres from here, French and Italian maps have never agreed and draw the boundary in two different ways. So it has remained. From up here, in any case, one perceives only a grass col that people have crossed on foot for as long as there have been people.

Go deeper

Whose is the summit of Mont Blanc?

It depends which map you look at. French maps tend to put the summit entirely in France; Italian ones run the border across it. The disagreement goes back to the documents of 1860 and has never been settled, largely because neither country has much to gain from reopening it.

Can you walk up to the col?

Yes, and it is a walk rather than a climb. From the hut it is a little over an hour on a path. It is on the Tour du Mont Blanc, so in summer many cross it with large rucksacks.

What can you see from the col?

Behind you, the whole of Val Veny with Mont Blanc closing it: it is the view that persuaded more than one traveller to write that this was the better side. Ahead, France, the Vallée des Glaciers, and a landscape that changes character within a few steps.

Where it is

Rifugio Elisabetta, Val Veny, 11013 Courmayeur · 45.767, 6.83744 · Open in Maps

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