This chapter deals with the northern French Alps, east to the Swiss and Italian borders, north along the middle Rhône valley, west to the N-S Rhône valley and south to the Drôme valley, the Écrins massif and the uppermost part of the Durance valley. I deal with the Alpine area south of that in the next chapter (Chap. 14). There are several reasons for this treatment of the Alpine area. First, the geology differs. All but one of the major crystalline massifs (the Mercantour massif) are in the northern sector. Both the small Queyras Massif and particularly the even smaller Ubaye Massif are really on the border between North and South. The Mesozoioc stratigraphy of the Pre-Alpine ranges also differs between north and south. In the north the Lower Cretaceous (Urgonian) Limestone is dominant, forming the spectacular mountains of the Vercours, Chartreuse, Bauges, and Aravis ranges. The higher mountains of the Alps themselves, including the Mont Blanc range, are on crystalline rocks, and have distinct terrain, clearly of Pleistocene glacial origin. The vast majority of extant French glaciers are here too.