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Photo: via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
A prehistoric site where you can see rock engravings. The ideal is to do the circuit in two days, you will then have to sleep at the refuge des Merveilles, managed by the French Alpine Club. Reservations needed.
The Vallée des Merveilles, also known in Italian as the Valle delle Meraviglie, is a part of the Mercantour National Park in southern France. It holds the largest quantity of open-air Bronze Age petroglyphs in Europe, after Val Camonica in Italy, and is given special note for the area's inclusion for the European Diploma of Protected Areas.
© OpenStreetMap contributors
A museum that documents stone age and other historic artefacts from the Mercantour National Park, most notably, a large collection of real and reproduced petroglyphs from the surroundings of the nearby Bégo Mountain.
This hike has more than 600 metres of elevation gain and leads you first through the undergrowth before reaching more open areas offering superb views of the surrounding mountains and very cool streams. Finally you will arrive at a superb glacial lake, a good place to picnic and soak your legs (or your whole body for the less cautious). The route continues north beyond the Italian border. However, if you come by bus, you probably won't have time to venture on the other routes in the allotted time, unless you choose to run as the shuttle arrives at 10:00 and departs at 16:00.