General Lannes and his division were still in the advance.

He had reached the valley before the rest of the army, entered the Aosta, and received his orders to march upon Ivrea, at the entrance to the plains of Piedmont.

There, however, he encountered an obstacle which no one had foreseen.
The fortress of Bard is situated about twenty-four miles from Aosta.

On the road to Ivrea, a little behind the village, a small hill closes the valley almost hermetically.

The river Dora flows between this hill and the mountain on the right.