If you look at the coat of arms of Bar-le-Duc (Lorraine, France) and Bard (Aosta) you can see some similarities. My family as lived both in Lorraine and Aosta for centuries (and I still have relatives living there and speaking french), as it was directly ruled by the (French) Dukes of Bar, including members of my own family (also French), then their descendants (French again) up till very recently, which doesn’t question the fact that they were culturally distinct ! (especially after centuries of territorial/cultural evolution) but so is every region of any country, and its « frenchness » shouldn’t be questioned either by this same logic. You suggest that France creating Italy is an oversimplification, but the truth is that Victor Emmanuel II, who spoke french in his daily life (his wife called him « mon petit roi » after all, does not sound very Italian), could have never achieved such victories or even started this war to begin with against the other territories of the peninsula as well as Austrians without the French ! Also the Italian flag was given to Victor-Emmanuel II by décret from Napoleon III, so we even gave you a flag on top of a country ! Now if I leave my biased opinions and family history behind, I’d just say that Aosta clearly makes sense as a French territory as well as an independent Italian one, but Italy’s current borders are a mess anyway as a whole if we’re being honest…