Pyrenees tourism

Central pyrenees

East of Bas-Navarra, the highest mountain areas of the Pyrenees begin, which are almost entirely part of the Pyrenees National Park. At the same time, the cities of the foothills are well provided with transport, which allows you to freely visit these wild and beautiful places both by rail (the Bayonne-Toulouse line) and by buses (directly to the mountains and through Accus to Spain ) In addition to picturesque lakes, dense forests, alpine meadows and mountain peaks up to 3000 meters high, the centers of attraction here are mountain circuses Leskan, Gavarni (Zoverni) and Trymuz, each with its own characteristic landscape and vegetation.

National Park Pyrenees (Parc National des Pyrenees) was created in 1967 to protect mountain ecocenoses just from the impact of the tourism industry. Stretching along the Spanish border for more than 100 km, it covers 14 mountain peaks with heights of more than 2,000 meters, about 200 lakes, more than a dozen picturesque valleys and two mountain circuses - Gavarni (Zoverni) and Trymuz. Despite the closed nature of some areas, about 400 km of hiking trails have been laid in the park, but hunting and vehicles are strictly prohibited, since about 140 species of animals live here, most of which are endangered.

Park information centers are located in Tarbes, Etsaut, Cauterets, Luz-Saint-Sauveur, Gavarnie, Laruns and Arrens - in them you can get all the necessary information about the reserve, locations (there are about a dozen mountain shelters and a lot of hotels here) and campsites, a map and weather forecasts (the latter is strongly discouraged, since the weather in the Pyrenees is quite unstable at any time of the year). Camping and camps are prohibited in many areas of the park, only at heights of more than 2,000 meters can temporary camps be set up, which must be dismantled after 9:00.

In the foothills, it is worth visiting the ancient capital of Bearn and the French part of the kingdom of Navarra - the picturesque town of Pau, the Betaram Caves (www.grottes-de-bethrarram.com), the first capital of Bearn - the town of Orthez with a characteristic fortified bridge (XIII c.) and numerous ancient mansions, the town of Salies-de-Bearn with its winding alleys and therapeutic thermal baths, the pretty provincial center of Sauveterre-de-Bearn, in Russian transcription - Sovter with a 13th-century Saint-Andre church and castle ruins and surrounded by medieval walls E in Navarre (Navarrenx), lying almost in the valley of the Po.

And above the mountains begins the kingdom of dense forests and picturesque valleys, the true pearls of which can be considered the valleys of Aspe and Oso. The most beautiful places are located above the gray city of Oloron-Sainte-Marie (45 km west of Lourdes).

Above the city, a modern freeway runs off to the tunnel of the Somport Pass, or Sompor, which serves as a source of endless disputes between local residents and the central government. And to the south is one of the information offices of the Pyrenees National Park, the eco-museum of the Aspe Valley in Sarrance and the ancient church of Notre Dame de la Pierre with a wonderful simple monastery. 7 km to the south lies the town of Bedous with a miniature castle, a church and a town hall decorated with beautiful arcades. And 6 km south-west you can find a magnificent mountain amphitheater at the foot of the peaks of Le Billard, Trois-Roy and Ansaber, a beautiful beech forest below the "tubular cliffs" of Les Orgues-de-Camplon, converted into an excellent castle d'Arance (XII century., www.auchateaudarance.com), the formidable fort Portale (XVI century) and the last village on the French side of the border - Urdos (Urdos) with the best restaurant in the valley.

The Oso Valley is known mainly due to its picturesque peak Midi (Pic du Midi, 2877 m), on top of which is an observatory, and around - dozens of beautiful lakes and cliffs. Also noteworthy is the town of Arudy with a good museum Maison d'Osos (a comprehensive collection of the history, flora and fauna of the Pyrenees and the national park), a tiny chapel at the starting point for many hiking in the mountains - the village of Gabas, surrounded by lakes the classic Midi d'Osos Pyrenees peak (Pic du Midi d'Ossau, 2884 m), as well as numerous ski resorts, which are mostly small in size, but are famous for good snow and low level of difficulty.

The main attraction in the foothills is the ancient Lourdes (37 km southeast of Po) - one of the most important centers of religious pilgrimage in Western Europe.

Southeast of Lourdes lies the town of Saint-Savin with the picturesque 12th-century abbey church, fortifications of a later period, beautiful Romanesque interiors and a statue of the Black Madonna, which, according to legend, was brought from Syria in the 12th century. And further south is the already mentioned Luz-Saint-Sauveur, known as a wonderful climate resort since the 19th century. The attraction of the town is the church of Saint-Andre, built at the end of the XII century and fortified in the XIV century by the Knights-Johannites. From here, the most convenient way opens to the famous mountain amphitheaters of Gavarni (Zverni) and Trymuz, which Victor Hugo called the "Colosseums of Nature". Formed by the influence of glaciers, which flowed from the surrounding mountain peaks for thousands of years, they attract thousands of tourists with magnificent landscapes, glaciers, waterfalls and snow that does not melt even in summer. To the east, between the jagged peaks of Astazou and Marbore, lies the main local attraction - the vertical rock wall of Bres de Roland, according to local legends carved from the mountain range with the Durendal sword (in French, this is the female name) of the legendary Roland.

The resort town of Bagneres de Bigorre (Bagneres-de-Bigorre, 15 km east of Lourdes) is famous for its thermal baths with an original central pool covered by a unique wooden dome. And upstream the Adura begins the Campan Valley (Vallee de Campan), whose settlement architecture is very different from the valleys in the west. The roofs of local houses are also covered with slate tiles, but the houses themselves and the sheds are stretched in a line, forming very characteristic house-walls with a mandatory balcony, looking at the sun. The capital of the valley - the tiny town of Campan - is known for its interesting covered market (16th century), numerous old buildings and a fortified church of unusual architecture.

And further east begins the Comminges Valley, stretching from the Bunier de Luchon almost to Toulouse, an ancient feudal county that also encompassed the upper Garonne Valley. The hallmark of the area is considered one of the most beautiful buildings in the Pyrenees - the cathedral of Saint-Bertrand de Commen, similar to the fortress, built over three centuries from XIV to XVII, as well as the adjacent monastery of the XII century. You can also see the graceful Romanesque church of Saint-Jousse in Valcabrere, famous for its rock paintings of the Gargas caves (www.gargas.org), the good Regional Museum in Bagneres de Luchon (Luchon, Bagneres de Luchon) and several ski resorts around him.

Eastern Pyrenees

The eastern regions of the Pyrenees are quite significantly different from the west in their climatic conditions. Wet mountain forests here give way to dry transparent groves of the Mediterranean type, mountain meadows - dry wastelands, and beech and pine - thyme and cistus. Spanish influence is also more pronounced here, since most of the region historically belonged to Catalonia, and was finally included in France only in 1659. Historic sites, with the exception of beautiful mountain landscapes, caves and castles, are concentrated here along the coast and in the lower sections of mountain valleys.

Whether you are arriving from the western Pyrenees or ascending to Andorra from Toulouse, the Ariege valley will certainly fall in the way as a dividing line between the Atlantic regions of the west and the Mediterranean zone. The long Ariege valley, stretching from high peaks on the border with Andorra and the resort areas of Ax-les-Thermes, to fertile agricultural areas north of Foix, forms the center of the department of the same name. Moving around the valley itself is not the slightest difficulty, since a modern highway and a railway line from Toulouse to Spain stretch along it, however, in most cases, the most picturesque places in the region can be visited only by jeep or motorcycle.

The administrative center of the Ariege department and the smallest provincial capital of France, Foix (www.ot-foix.fr) is 82 km south of Toulouse. This is a pleasant city of narrow lanes and semi-stone buildings of the XVI-XVII centuries with an attractive old quarter, sandwiched between the rivers Ariezh and Arzhet, or Arzh (Arget). Above all this are the three towers of the castle of Comt de Foix (IX-XIV centuries), which now houses a small exhibition and museum complex.

6 km northwest of Foix you can see the longest navigable underground river in Europe - Labouiche, on which you can take a tour for 7.5 euros (from April to June and September daily, from 10.00 to 11.15 and from 14.00 to 17.15; in July and August - daily, from 9.30 to 17.15; in October and November - on weekends and holidays, from 10.00 to 11.15 and from 14.00 to 16.30). And 25 km west of the city are the prehistoric caves of Mas d'Azil with a magnificent natural tunnel 500 meters long. This cave complex, stretching underground for more than 12 km, was inhabited for more than 20 thousand years and was used as a refuge by the Albigensians and Protestants in the XIV-XVI centuries. The most famous galleries can be visited in March, October and November on Sundays, from 14.00 to 18.00; in April - May - from Monday to Friday, from 14.00 to 18.00, on Sundays - from 10.00 to 12.00 and from 14.00 to 18.00; in June and September - daily, from 10.00 to 12.00 and from 14.00 to 18.00; in July and August - daily, from 10.00 to 18.00; entrance ticket costs 6.1 euros (includes entrance to the Prehistoric Museum in the village of Les Mas d'Azil).

South of the town of Tarascon lies the village of Niaux with an interesting Pyrenees Museum, famous for its unrivaled collection of tools, home furnishings and old photographs illustrating the rapidly disappearing traditions of the peoples of this region. But the real reason to go down to this small village is the huge cave complex Grot de Nyo (www.ariege.com/niaux) 2 km north of the outskirts. In addition to 4 km of underground galleries with rock paintings of the megalithic period (approximately 11 thousand years BC), you can see the bed of the underground river, as well as go to another "cave city" Grot de Vash (www.grotte-de -la-vache.org) at the village of Alliat. This is a relatively rare example of a populated cave, where you can still see the foci, bones and tools of not only more or less late eras, but also of the Paleolithic period. The third cave of the region - Grot de Bedillac - is located above the village of the same name (5 km from Tarascon) and also contains examples of Paleolithic art, although not in such numbers as in Nyь, but there are much more stalactites and narrow unexplored manholes here.

26 km south-east of Tarascon, in the upper reaches of the Ariege river, is the well-known resort town of Ax-le-Term, surrounded by high wooded mountains. Also around the Ariege valley are the ruins of the Millot Castle, the picturesque Port de Ler Pass (1517 m), the remote resort village of Aulus-les-Bains, famous for its beautiful cathedrals and a beautiful Romanesque monastery (both - XII c.) the town of Saint-Lizier (Saint-Lizier), the magnificent Highlands of So (Pays de Sault) with its "strongholds of the Albigenses" - the castles of Rokkifad (XII-XVI centuries) and Monsegur (X-XIII centuries), gorges La Fro with their cliffs about a kilometer high, allowing direct sunlight to go to the bottom only at noon, beautiful arcades of the 13th-15th centuries on the market square in th odke Mirepoix (Mirepoix, is already almost on a plain, 24 km northeast of Foix), as well as fortified Benedictine Abbey (XII-XIV centuries.) and the castle in the village of Camon (Camon).

To the east from the mountains runs the valley of the Aude River, overlooking Carcassonne itself. The small town of Limoux with a picturesque old bridge and a historic core, the thermal resort of Alet-les-Bains, the system of canyons of the gorges of Saint-Georges and l'Ode with the magnificent cave Grot de l 'are of interest here. Aguzu, the ruins of the castles of Duson and Donesan (the last refuge of the Albigensians, in which they kept for another 11 years after the fall of Monsegur). See here full travel guide in the Pyrenees.

A lot of historical places are generally connected with the “Albigensian heresy” in this region - romantic dilapidated medieval fortresses, which are called “Qatari castles” here, crown almost every fifth hill to the west and north of Perpignan. The south of France, especially Roussillon, Languedoc and eastern Ariege, was in the XII century the main territory for the spread of this trend of Christianity. Pope Innocent III in 1208 accused the Albigensians of heresy and persuaded the French king to start a crusade against them, and the "battle for faith" broke out in these parts with an unprecedented bitterness. The Albigensians were defeated, but their castles still attract the attention of thousands of tourists, which are also favored by the carefully preserved local legends about the allegedly innumerable riches of the “Qatari" buried somewhere in these mountains.

For guests' convenience, a special Intersite Pass card has been issued (cost 4 euros), which can be purchased at any of the eighteen participating castles of the department and tourist offices. The card gives adults significant discounts when visiting the fortresses of Carcassonne, Lastours, Saessac, Caunes-Minervois, Saint-Hilaire, Lagrasse, Lagrasse, Fontfroide, Puilorenza ( Puilaurens), Curibus (Queribus), Aguilar (Aguilar), Peyrepertuse (Peyrepertuse) and other historical sites (children on the Intersite Pass card visit these places for free).

The area, including the eastern edge of the Pyrenees, as well as the lowlands around Perpignan and along the Mediterranean coast, has been known since antiquity as Roussillon (Roussillon, in honor of the main city of the Sardonian tribe - Ruscino, destroyed by the Normans in 859), or "French Catalonia".

In the Pyrenees, many hiking and horse riding routes running from town to town, from the castle to the resort, through the most picturesque places of the Pyrenees National Park, the Luchon and Cerdan plateaus, as well as along the green foothills. Mountains usually open from mid-June to the end of September, and although thick snow cover is rare here, it is not recommended to travel in these parts in winter - the weather is very changeable and the places are deserted. Numerous alpine resorts stretching along the border are also attractive, from which short excursions to the surrounding mountains are constantly organized, as well as trips by jeeps, ATVs or simple tours for climbers.