East of Samoëns, the valley narrows into the Gorge des Tines before opening out again at SIXT, 7km away, another pretty village on the confluence of two branches of the Giffre: the Giffre-Haut, which comes down from Salvagny; and the Giffre-Bas, which rises in the Cirque du Fer-à-Cheval.The cirque begins about 6km from Sixt – there's a footpath along the left bank of the Giffre-Bas. It's a vast semicircle of rock walls, up to 700m in height and 4–5km long, blue with haze on a summer's day and striated with the long chains of white water from the waterfalls. The left-hand end of the cirque is dominated by a huge spike of rock known as La Corne du Chamois (The Goat's Horn). At its foot the valley of the Giffre bends sharply north to its source in the glaciers above the Fond de la Combe. The bowl of the cirque is thickly wooded except for a circular meadow in the middle where the road ends. There's a tourist office and a park office in Sixt (both Mon–Sat 9am–noon & 2–7pm; tel 04.50.34.49.36). The park office produces a useful and well-illustrated folder of walks in the region. Sixt also has three gîtes d'étape and a hotel, Le Petit Tetras (tel 04..50.34.42.51, www.le-petit-tetras.fr; €55–70; closed mid-Sept to Dec), a modern chalet with an outdoor pool.
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