The high pastures and screes hold chamois in numbers and Alpine ibex, reintroduced and now well established on the Italian border ridges. Both are approachable on foot with patience.

The Vallée des Merveilles combines wildlife with archaeology: tens of thousands of Bronze Age engravings on the rock slabs beneath Mont Bégo, reached on a long walk and visited with a guide in the protected zone.

The larch forest and boulder fields hold marmots everywhere, mountain hare, black grouse at dawn on the treeline, and the rock ptarmigan higher up.

The skies hold golden eagle, and the bearded vulture reintroduced across the Alps — Mercantour is one of the release areas and sightings have become regular.

The wolves are the park's most famous residents, having crossed from Italy in 1992 and recolonised the French Alps from here. They are genuinely present and almost never seen; the Alpha wolf park at Saint-Martin-Vésubie holds packs in large enclosures and explains the fierce controversy with local shepherds honestly.

June to September is the season; the high passes and the Merveilles are snowbound outside it. Autumn brings the chamois rut and clear air.

Practicalities

The park is an hour or two from Nice, with Saint-Martin-Vésubie, Saint-Étienne-de-Tinée and the Vallée de la Roya the usual bases. Refuges must be booked in summer.

This is a working landscape with summer sheep flocks and livestock guardian dogs — large, serious and doing a job. Give flocks a wide berth, never approach the dogs, and keep any dog of your own on a lead and well away.