Name: Vanoise National Park
Address: Val-Cenis, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, 73500, France

Where the French Alps rise in serrated ranks above the Maurienne valley, Vanoise National Park sprawls across more than 1,700 square kilometres of high-altitude wilderness—a realm of glaciated peaks, alpine meadows, and deep forests that have remained largely untouched since its designation in 1963. The park's terrain ranges from densely forested lower slopes dominated by spruce and larch to barren rock-and-ice zones above 3,000 metres, with meadows and grasslands clothing the middle elevations in summer. This vertical stacking of habitats sustains an intricate web of alpine and subalpine wildlife: birds of prey hunt the thermals above the ridges, woodland songbirds occupy the treeline, small forest mammals shelter in the dense conifers, and larger ungulates move seasonally between the high meadows and sheltered valleys. The park's glaciers and permanent snow patches, though shrinking, continue to define its character and regulate the timing of the brief but explosive growing season that sustains this mountain ecosystem.