HIGH- PYRENEES

High, these mountains of the heart of the Pyrenean chain flirt with the blue sky. High but deep also, with a memory which defies time. The hand of the man posed, for twenty five thousand years, and even the rock, has testified some. Eternal hello which crosses the ages.
Is it because they are sunny, accessible and secret that they attracted the man so much? One of our ancestors of the age of the stone in the caves of Gargas, Roland, the nephew of Charlemagne, a monk builder of the abbey, a soldier of Gaston Fébus in Mauvezin or the wandering painter of a humble vault of Louron... the human traces are everywhere, ancient and more recent, always enthralling, to tell the history of humanity. As if, since always, these High-Pyrenees had been posed in refuge, out of time.

TO CHANGE AIR
On the foot of the granite giants, it is the physical force of nature which imposes itself. With more than 3000 meters of altitude, the Perdu Mount, Vignemale, Balaïtous, these tops and their collars, the glacial circuses, the lakes and impetuous gaves... the work is perfect, intact and attracting. The perfumes, the colors, this density of animal and vegetable life, this quality of the light and the air revive you the spirit and the body. One is surprised to breathe differently, to walk in the amazement of this nature now protected by man. Arrived at the top, it is the plain which is offered soft, green and hot, like a new horizon.

aurefois
People from here are of good hardening. Were they, by their roots, nourished by the force of the Pyrenees? Since always, the Bigourdans ,who are sharp and fighters, train the horses, guide the herds towards the highest mountain pastures with their labrit(dog of shepherd), cultivate the ground in mountainside, cut the wood, the stone... Their precise gestures imprint the old tools, their steps traced the ways and, stones with stone, they built their villages. Here, when they have the Faith, the Virgin speaks to them and when they joke, the emperors smile... Bigourdans, welcoming, remain faithful to themselves. In the battles of today the colors of the teams of Rugby float and the festivals overflow the calendar, brightened by the hot accent of the country and the powerful songs of the mountain dwellers. With the Bigourdans, you will not have the choice. You will like as them good things and will do them well: to eat, laugh, drink, sing, play, share the festival... The art of well-being, at the top!
To eat is a major art in the High-Pyrenees. The foie gras, crystallized, salmis, pork-butcheries, pigmeats, lamb, sheep, soups and the vegetables of the kitchen garden, the cheeses farm, the wines of Madiran, honey and the cakes... open to you the range of a hot, coloured, tasty kitchen, carried by a healthy and quite alive pastoral tradition. Here greediness is a festival and a pleasure granted by the gods... And Malbouf is not a saint of our calendar!
It is to approach the sky that the men reached the tops. At the Peak of the South of Bigorre, epic of stars started in 1880 with a weather station "Spartan " hung between sky and ground. There, the stars murmured their secrets to the ear of the men. The observatory attracted the largest astrophysicists during the XXth century. Opened today to all, after a building site which was the highest of the world, the Peak of the South invites you "more close to stars", to discover the sun, planets and astronomy in a fabulous panorama.

SPRINGS
to know the secrets of water, imagine the birth of the Pyrenees: the old chain of 200 million years, the old mineral base which breaks and, in each fracture, the water which infiltrates, bubbles, re-appears, descends and digs the slopes... Wild water, glaciers, waterfalls and torrents, lakes, fresh sources and hot thermal springs... the blood of nature. Water tamed with respec by the man. These mountains, with the biggest dams of the Fifties, became the water tower which irrigates the fertile garden of south-west.

REFRESHING
Have you already plunge your body in tepid water after an excursion, or a downhill run? Pleasure of rebirth! This sulphurized, hot or fresh water, is a gift of the ground. Their therapeutic virtues, appreciated since Antiquity, attracted the greatest of the Courses of Europe and the world which radiate with ostentation the Thermal baths of the Pyrenees. Today, water spouts out in thermal baths that are clear and luminous, in conformity with the medical requirements. Health, beauty, relaxation, fitness, energy... so much of benefits for the body and the spirit are worth well to be thrown to water.

 

TO CLIMB
one of the major effects that our summits produce on the HomoSapiens is the delightful movement of his legs and of his arms while the fresh air fills up and train his lungs . To go up, go down, crawl, fly, pedal, to ride, to climb... to move becomes to you as natural as idleness. Here, nature is a permanent invitation to the discovery, the observation, the going beyond... Within the respect of its balance and its beauty.

TO SLIP
We have two countries, in soft or stiff slopes. One of summer which is green, moving and hot, while the other is vast, calm and white. In winter, our mountains have a broad, generous spirit that is opened to all the pleasures of slips: track skiing, touring ski, rackets... Our 12 stations become animated and offers outstanding equipment to you, good lodgings, festivals for all, in foot of track or in village. Without forgetting slips in running waters, as soon as the snow melt, into the gaves which forge Olympic champions like Adisson and Forgues...

STONES
In this country, the varied constructions answer with genius the relief, the variations in temperature,and altitude. Bigourdans built with the ground, the rollers of the torrents, wood, the slate and the stones of the mountain vast houses of village and placed them in the valleys of Louron, Aure, Castelloubon , the Toy Country, Barousse... and the barns, border, rough huts of mountain pastures where the pastoral life is expressed with force. In the center of the villages, the markets, the fountains, the vaults, the lanes... inspire the daily gestures, the faith, the hard and simple life.

AND MEN
It is the hot and solid interior of the houses which says the life of people. To live here for a few days, a few weeks, it is to find the odor of wood, the taste of the bread, honey, cheese, the perfumes and the noises of childhood. If you push the door of a hotel, an inn or a refuge, you will cross people who look at you well in the face, whoknow to laugh with the accent, tightening you the hand without fuss and slicing ham with the knife, to divide garbure and the beauty of a landscape in silence, to tell yesterday and tomorrow... with the risk to be attached for a long time to our High Pyrenees.

Informaions
High-Pyrenees
Tourism Environment
11, street Gaston Manent
BP 9502 - 65950 TARBES CEDEX 9
Tel.: O5 62 56 70 65
Faxes O5 62 56 70 66
E-mail: tourism hautes-pyrenees@cg65.fr