Where to sleep: Pontboset

The Le moulin des Aravis holiday farmhouse is located within a historic building which was a sawmill in the seventeenth century.
The holiday farmhouse offers its guests rooms and meals.

The restaurant/hotel is family run with experience which has been passed down over the generations.
The restaurant/hotel is situated close to the ancient historical populated area of the village of Pontboset.
The hotel offers the opportunity to enjoy a relaxing stay where it is possible to participate in activities such as trout fishing, climbing, kayaking and trekking to discover the many rural villages and numerous Alpine huts in the territories of the village.
In the winter season, furthermore, it is possible to participate in cross-country skiing and downhill skiing, closeby in Champorcher.

La Louye su la goumba is located in the old village of Crest Désot, not far from Pontboset. From here you can enjoy a suggestive panorama and the beauty and tranquillity of this place where time seems to have stood still. For culture lovers, there are a number of nearby attractions that are sure to take your breath away: Issogne castle, the Retempio sanctuary and the church of San Martino. For the more sporty, there are walks to suit all abilities.

Together with my husband, we decided to renovate an old ruin, for us and for our three children, in the hamlet of Châteigne, a small rural village where you can still find original buildings made of dry stone and wood.
The village of Châteigne is surrounded by centuries-old chestnut trees and takes its name from the fruit of the latter (the name Châtaigne, in French, means “chestnut”). Later, we decided to renovate the house next to ours, which belonged to my husband’s grandparents, and to make i tinto a guesthouse.
The rooms have been meticulously furnished in order to keep the typical mountain style, with stone and wood finishings, expertly made by local artisans recovering the original materials. We thus restored the old wooden ceilings and reused the wooden planks, for the boiserie of the rooms and bathrooms, and the “lose”(stone slabs) of our roofs. Even the curtains on our windows have been expertly made by recovering the wedding furnishings of our grandparents, again made with the “teila de maïson”, hemp grown and woven manually by our grandmothers during the long and cold winter evenings. You can admire our chestnut woods and the panorama of our mountains from the wooden balconies or comfortably seated on the deckchairs that we have made available to you in the green area in front of the building, where you can relax and rest.
In each room you will find a wonderful a courtesy set by Montiflor, a local company that produces cosmetic products starting from the direct cultivation of medicinal herbs from the Champorcher Valley.

The Dortoir Retempio is a refuge located in Pontboset in the Champorcher Valley, next to the facilities of the homonymous mountain pasture, and opposite the Sanctuary dedicated to Notre-Dame de la Visitation.
The Dortoir remains open during the summer, during the mountain pasture period.
It can be reached by driving up to Pontboset from where you can walk along the mule track that leads to the Crest, or reach the Crest (1096m) by car. From there a well-marked path such as Alta Via 2 starts, which runs along the Brenve and at the waterfall turns onto the beautiful stone staircase (which seems to climb into paradise …) and then continues on a path immersed in a forest of huge beech trees which leads directly to Dortoir located just opposite the Sanctuary (1470m).
The Dortoir Retieme is located along the Alta Via 2 route that crosses the southern part of Valle d’ Aosta and allows you to climb some mountains above 3000 meters such as the Rosa dei Banchi. In fact, continuing towards the Pussuy pass (or Pousseuil 2213m) you pass through Alpe Buriana (1961m) to reach the Valsomma pastures (1716m) and then climb up to the pass. Or it is possible to walk towards the Crest refuge and continue towards the more famous trails that branch off from the Dondena refuge.
The panorama is remarkable, with a nice glance onto the adjacent ridges, onto the Dame de Challand and onto the Rosa dei Banchi group, in particular it is located opposite the chain that goes from Cima Bronze to the Ponton del Camoscio in the center of which you can observe the majestic Bec delle Strie. From a naturalistic point of view, the beauty and the rapid succession of very different Alpine environments (from the chestnut woods to the conifer woods, up to the grasslands where cattle and herds of goats and sheep of indigenous breeds in danger of extinction graze) makes it possible to ‘observe a multitude of wild fauna and flora, safely guaranteed by the fact that they are inside the Mont Avic park on the border with that of the Gran Paradiso, as well as by the conservation of the ecosystems created over time with traditional agricultural activity.
Due to its particular location, the The Dortoir Retempio, thanks to its location, is suitable for families with children, it allows you to carry out relaxing alternative holidays with the possibility of living the life of mountaineers for a few days; it offers 8 beds in dormitories with a bathroom and hot water.

Located at the entrance of the village of Pontboset the “Lou créton di lui” youth hostel was originally an old parish church dating back to1600, recently renovated taking particular care over the original architecture.
In the place in which it stood, in the past century in times of famine, wolves in search of prey were spotted, and this is where the “lou creton di lui” gets its name, meaning “the wolf ridge”.
The building is located close to the town hall opposite the parish church of San Grato. The main façade opens onto the pretty square where the old district begins, characterised by its traditional Valle d’Aosta architecture (Rascard buildings, Grenze, stone fountains).
The structure is surrounded by century-old chestnut trees creating a peaceful atmosphere with occasional bursts of merriment during tourist events organised throughout the year.