Lac du Mont Cenis #2. Haute Maurienne, Western Alps, France

i there, this is the Lac du Mont Cenis, a huge lake placed at more than 2000m. (6000 ft)in a beautiful valley of the French Western Alps in the Department of Haute Maurienne, very close to the Italian border. All this area was Italian before 1947, when, signing the peace treaty with France at the end of WWII, Italy was obliged to cede to France this place and many other small pieces of territory in the Alps, virtually all those places where Italy had artillery and fortified facilities. On June 1940, while Hitler was entering in Paris as a conqueror and his troops were easily deafeting the British Army in France, Mussolini decided he had to jump on the "victory train" before it was too late. On the 10th of June Italy declared war to an already deafeted nation, stabbing France in the back. What was conceived as an easy campaign, simply necessary to gain the right to have a seat at the victory table, ended up 15 days later with no territorial gains, and with more than 600 Italian Alpine troops dead. Hironically and tragically at once, most of the casualties were due to the very bad weather conditions, as they had been sent to figth at more than 2000m of altitude just wearing summer uniforms. It was June, after all! This was the dreadful entering of Italy into WWII. Just a prodrom to the disasters Italy would have suffered in the following 5 years. In these days, many of the bunkers and fortifications of the area are still there, and many of them are easy to reach and visit. You can still read the soldier's graffiti on the walls, after more than 60 years. Besides the hystorical interest, this place is also very interesting from a natural point of view. The large valley is very scenic, and the lake shows always beautiful blues and greens. But everytime I go there I cannot avoid to think of what happened up there. That's the reason of my long - very long, sorry! - introduction. I took this picture last Friday a few minutes after sunset. I was very surprised to still find some ice on the lake surface. Your C&C are higly appreciated, thanks for your time. Paolo Details: EOS 400D, Tokina ATX-Pro 12-24 f4, GND 2x, tripod. Three vertical frames stitched