France 2007 - The French Pyrenees

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Around the French Pyrenees
The French northern side of the Pyrenees was more accessible so we spent a couple of days in the area staying at Laruns, deep in wooded valleys with roads to the north and east through the Col d'Aubesque which we decided to avoid. A 40 km trip up the main road to Pau was required to refill our Gaslow cylinder at the nearest listed GPL filling station, then we returned to Laruns, after failing to find a couple of listed aires, and a lunchtime stop at a small and rather low key country park by a lake at Castet. The next morning we headed to Lourdes through pleasant hilly countryside and being a Sunday it was busy. (the following weekend was a bikers pilgrimage - that would have been interesting!) We found the shrine to be a moving place, once past the street of souvenir shops- we had expected far more tackiness, and there were cheerful groups of pilgrims from so many countries. We watched as they all lined up, many in wheel chairs, for the traditional photograph which took the best part of an hour to arrange! From there we headed south along a sometimes narrow but good road to Luz-St-Sauveur, pausing to browse around the popular street market then through ever more mountainous countryside to the Cirque de Gavarnie, one of the most impressive sights in the Pyrenees where the valley ends in a sheer wall of mountains with several tall waterfalls. Once parked in the village it was an easy two mile walk along the bottom of the valley to the foot of the cliffs and the old hotel (closed). From there it was another mile or so across rocks and shale to the base of the waterfall but we just sat and admired to sheer beauty of the place on a rare sunny day. We found the aire (free in low season) a mile or so above the village although several motorhomes stayed overnight in village car parks. There were marked paths to mountain refuges for serious walkers but we enjoyed a short stroll in the morning to the large Notre Dame des Neiges shrine on the nearby hill overlooking the valley. Notre Dame des Neiges at Gavarnie	Lourdes Basilica Lourdes pilgrims photo line-up Cirque de Gavarnie relaxing at the Gavarnie aire
Our planned route was to head east but after studying the Michelin Atlas we decided to avoid the very winding Col du Tourmalet (marked with red dots on the map) and drove back up the main road to Lourdes, then on good roads across undulating countryside to Bagneres de Bigorre and passing a large chateau on the hilltop at Mauvezin. We then travelled on busier roads through the towns St Gaudins and Pointis to St Girons. We briefly stopped at Castelnau-Durban where there was a shady aire and parking place but it was directly on the main road in the town centre so we continued eastwards and turned off at La Bastide de Serau onto a very narrow road across the forested hills to Serres-sur-Arget, a small village with an interesting church belltower where we stayed the night alone in the aire.	Bell tower at Serres-s-Arget
The next day we drove to Foix, a larger town with imposing chateaux situated at two strategic hilltop positions on the crossing of main north-south and east-west routes. After getting lost and missing a turning (satnav not turned on!) we ended up in Tarascon-s-Ariege in the foothills of the Pyrenees again, so doubled back along the free autoroute and found the road we intended to follow heading for Montsegur, the last Cathar stronghold, an impressive castle but a steep climb to the top (and €4 each). Now the large roadside signs told us we were in Cathar country with ruined castles and fortified towns, and after a 3km diversion following an Aire de Pique-nique sign and ending up on a forest track, we arrived at Quillan for a supermarket top-up then we turned south through the narrow Défilé-de-Pierre-Lys gorge to Axat and a further 25 km slow drive, mostly behind a cattle truck through more gorges and long climbs to the large plateau de Capcir, at 1600m altitude with alpine meadows and small ski resorts. Having had a day of tedious driving we found the Camping du Lac at Matemale. In the evening we enjoyed a pleasant stroll around the lake which has a leisure and sporting activity centre and huge fields of wild narcissi flowers nearby.
Montsegur Cathar chateau	Narcissi at Matemale
From there we planned on returning to Spain crossing the Plain de Cerdagne, reputedly the sunniest place in France, suddenly to find ourselves distracted by a typical French delight - amusing statues in the centre of the small town of Saillagouse (where we discovered there was a camping-car aire.) Saillagouse skiers statue There was also a station on the narrow gauge Petite Train Jaune which runs 63km from Villefranche de Conflent near Prades to Bourg-Madame and Latour-de-Carol on the Spanish border. After a photo stop we drove to the Spanish border at Puigcerdà and then another very long climb over the wooded mountains on good roads, eventually arriving at Ribes de Fraser, a rather drab town where another tourist train runs up to Núria. The train times would have meant a couple of hours wait so we gave that one a miss as well so drove down an industrial valley to a small campsite at Campdevanol	Saillagouse statues and mural Saillagouse statues

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