One of the difficulties at this time of year is finding a route which is free of snow.  For the past week or two the temperatures have been significantly warmer, so I expected the paths up to Villa and down from La Sage to be OK.  And for the most part, they were.  There was just one section, which needed some care to cross, where the snow had obviously avalanched during the winter.  (See pic 25).  A bigger issue was the huge amount of fallen branches littering the path.  I must have spent 30 minutes or more moving some of the biggest ones to the side.

The two villages lie on the south facing slopes between 1750m and 1650m (5,740ft and 5,400ft) so, looking at the snowline (see pic 10), it will be some time before I go above 2000m (6,560ft).