The Darcys left Geneva in early June, the earliest date to promise safe passage over the Alps. They decided to take the southern route to Martigny, stopping first at Les Bégues to dine, and arriving that evening at St. Martin at the Hôtel Mont Blanc, so-called because it afforded travellers a perfect view of the Monarch of Mountains. The Darcys encountered some of the travelling families they had met in Geneva; at supper, the conversation was all of travels and travails of the Simplon. The scenery in all directions was magnificent: high mountains capped with eternal snow, deep ravines where the melted snow dashed downward from high gorges with a terrific roar, and streams of water appearing from no-where through rocks, offering a cool and refreshing drink to the traveller. The Genevan territory extended only a few miles farther on that road, but, whilst within Switzerland, the countryside continued similarly prosperous, industrious, well-cultivated, and well-ordered. Having passed through the hamlet of Chêne, and crossed the bridge, the Darcys entered the Savoy; their immediate impression was that there could not be two adjacent countries less alike on the entirety of the earth! The sensation of surprise was universal upon beholding the poverty and miserable conditions of the Savoyards. The country was comprised at first of high mountains, cloathed with a dense forest forming one side of the Valley of the Arve. With the exception of a few crop-fields and some handful of poor vineyards, the entire landscape was comprised entirely of wilderness. A small number of Savoyards were seen with their narrow ox-carts, employed mending the road in a dilatory fashion.

Along the route, the Darcys saw numerous picturesque ruins of castles, adding to the grandeur of the mountains and the sparkling Arve. They stopt the first night in Les Bégues, the capital of Fancigny, that was presently—following the Congress of Vienna—a duchy subject to the crown of Sardinia. The Arve flowed through the centre of the town, situated amongst a succession of mountains capped with snow. The hills above the town were well-settled with cottages, and the road through Les Bégues lay under a canopy of stately old trees. Such pleasant initial scenes were succeeded by a sight far less agreeable, as the village of Les Bégues was dominated by the sight of a large prison with its high towers vigilant above the surrounding vicinity and all who passed-by. As if in defiance of this scene of melancholy, an inn was near-by the tower, where several tables of rustics in their large-brimmed straw hats and light trousers, and a few soldiers in their tall shakos and plumes, accompanying the only ladies present—save the serving-maid—were gaily drinking and cheering one another with tumblers of wine. In truth, thought Elizabeth, the men looked as healthy and strong as they should, even with the great quantity of à votre santés drunk in just the time it took to pass by.