A Land Shaped by Stone and Time

France's mountain heritage encompasses two magnificent ranges that have shaped not only the physical landscape but the very soul of the nation. The Alps, Europe's highest and most extensive mountain system, stretch in a graceful arc from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean, their white-capped summits including the legendary Mont Blanc, Western Europe's highest peak at 4,808 meters. To the southwest, the Pyrenees form a natural frontier between France and Spain, their peaks lower but no less dramatic, rising from Atlantic mists to Mediterranean sunshine across 430 kilometers of ridge and valley.

These mountains tell a story written in stone—a geological epic of continental collision, volcanic fury, and the patient work of ice and water. The Alps, born from the collision of African and European tectonic plates some 65 million years ago, continue to grow imperceptibly each year. The Pyrenees, older and more mysterious in their formation, preserve ancient rocks that predate the dinosaurs alongside younger limestone peaks carved by glaciers during the ice ages.