FRANCE   -  MIDI PYRENÉES

2016   NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 

The title of this account is a little misleading because the administrative region of this name was only created in the 1970s and subsumed in 2016 with Languedoc-Roussillon in a new and even larger region called Occitanie.

This new name is derived from the word Occitan which was a language (langue d'oc) historically spoken by many in South West France, Northern Spain, Morocco, Monaco and North West Italy closely related to Gascon, Catalan and Vivaro-Alpine. There was no standard written form and like Cornish, Welsh and Gaelic, although some still use their version of Occitan it is gradually being displaced by standard French, Spanish and Italian.

When Midi Pyrenées was first created it comprised parts of the much older provinces, principally Gascony in the west, parts of Languedoc with Toulouse as its capital in the east, and many smaller Pyrenéan provinces in the south.

This account is one of a stay at a campsite called, appropriately enough, Camping Midi Pyrenées, in Montréjeau roughly halfway between the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. Here is a view from my van's pitch looking south east.

REGIONAL TOPOGRAPHY

In geologic terms the Iberian land mass was distinct from the European one but the two moved towards one another with the Pyrenean mountain chain being formed as a result of the collision between them.   It lies approximately east-west and is about 450 km long.

Later movements and erosion, particularly during the Ice Ages, changed the original configuration so that today there are deep glacially-induced cliffs and water eroded valleys, running mainly north-south but sometimes cross-ways and usually steeper on the French side.

BAGNERES-DE-LUCHON

Luchon lies at the head of one of the north-south valleys on the French side with soaring mountains all around and had human occupants since Neolithic times with many cave dwellings from that period now discovered.

But it was first put on a modern map when the Roman General Pompey marched through in 71 BC after a 5 year campaign in Spain against rebel general Sertorius. One of his soldiers who had a skin complaint bathed in the local waters for 21 days and came out completely cured (I think it must have been in summer when the temperature can reach 35°C as it sometimes drops to – 10°C in winter).

A few years later Tiberius Claudius Nero heard the story and had three pools dug to create thermal baths (similar to those in Bath in England) and so the town became a Roman Spa.

About 2,000 years later, when economic growth from the Industrial Revolution and the increasing prosperity of the upper echelons of society led to an expansion of leisure activities the town became a more modern centre of attraction and new Baths, Hotels, Restaurants and other amusements were constructed.    The Baths are still in use, still with a recommended immersion of 21 days, but the town has modernised its attractions by building resorts and scores of ski-lifts high up the mountainside to attract winter sports enthusiasts.

I arrived about noon in late November, after summer activities had long been forgotten and well before there was enough snow to attract the winter sports crowd.   So the town was relatively quiet but I did find a bistro at which to enjoy a passable lunch of lamb cutlets with chips and salad followed by crèpes chocolat noir (Yum!).

Allée d'Etigny in Bagnères-de-Luchon

THE COL DU PORTILLON

There are four ways of leaving Bagnères. One choice is to return north along the way one normally arrives. Another is to go south to newly created resorts and Refuges high in the mountains. The two other ways are to climb high up roads with many hairpin bends to cols on either the south east or south west sides.

I chose to follow the south east route and finally emerged at the summit of the Col du Portillon some 9 km from town and 1,293 metres above sea level. This is on the border between France and Spain but there were of course no formalities as both are members of the European Union's Shengen Zone (although the pass was closed temporarily a year ago following the terrorist attacks in Paris).

Summit of the Pass at Col du Portillon

I was very tempted to get the bike out of the car and ride at least a little way along a rough track heading off in an eastwards direction. There was a notice beside it making clear this was for the use of walkers and mountain cyclists – and indeed I could see on my Planet Earth map that it wound around the mountainside and rejoined the motor road later on.

But, there were mist and rain drops in the air, it was cold, and I could see from the map the place where track and road again met was some 5 km distant and 600 metres down the Spanish side of the pass.     I might have managed the distance but had grave doubts about my ability to push the bike up the road for the same distance and height to rejoin the car.

THE VAL D'ARAN AND BOSOST

The Val d'Aran is one of the areas in Spain where Occitan is still regularly spoken. It is a sub region of the (separatist) Province of Catalonia within which Occitan is an officially recognised language,  but has its own dialect known as Aranese.

Interestingly, the valley is also the source of the La Garonne river that flows for a few km on the Spanish side of the border before entering France, winding its way north to Toulouse and then west until it becomes one of the mighty watercourses joining the Gironde Estuary.

There were excellent views up the valley from a roadside promontory about half way down the pass. Here there was a statue and plaque celebrating Spanish Winners of the Tour de France from the great Bahamontes in 1959 to the commendably drug free Sastres in 2008 (I guess the stature was erected soon after since Contador won the race for the second time in 2009).

Statue celebrating Spanish winners of the Tour de France

Yes, although I was deterred by the possibility of having to walk my bike up half the height, the pass is often used as one of the Mountain Stages of the Tour de France, and by leisure cyclists as part of a longer ride!!!!!     People describe having made the climb in less than half an hour at an average speed of 15 km/hr.     I can't even manage that on the flat – they must belong to a different species.

BOSOST

Bosost had the appearance of a small town catering mainly to modern visitors and tourists. Its main feature was La Garonne, already a clear and fast-flowing mountain stream on its way to becoming a mighty river.

La Garonne at Bosost

PIC DU MIDI

This mountain has an isolated peak very nearly 10,000 feet high and right at the top has an astronomical observatory containing France's largest telescope.

Observatory on the Summit of Pic du Midi

French Motorways have rest areas called Aires, some are just vehicle parks with a Picnic area and some are fully serviced with a Restaurant, Toilets, Fuel Stations and so on. There is one of the latter called Aire de Pic du Midi at a strategic point on the A64.

On the northern side of this Aire there is an unusual sundial consisting of two pieces of children's playground equipment and posts of varying height. There are 12 posts arranged on the perimeter of a curve similar to an imaginary figure of eight passing through them all – one for each month of the year.

An Unusual Sundial

The tube and frame in the photo form a line of sight on the Observatory and solar noon can be determined by observing when the tip of the shadow from the appropriate post reaches that line of sight. The positioning and height of the posts allow for the earth's elliptical orbit around the sun and the inclination of its axis of rotation.

Interpretation of solar noon in terms of clock noon requires a number of corrections and there is a board nearby tabulating these for this sundial. These are necessary because clocks measure time changes using a fixed interval and are set for a single longitude in each time zone. In contrast each solar day has a different length from its neighbours and noon occurs sooner or later at different longitudes from that used as the time zone standard.

CIRQUE DE GAVARNIE

The most celebrated of the Pyrennean Cirques is the one at Gavarnie where the deepest part of the cliff is an almost vertical drop of about 2,000 metres and the width varies from 800 metres at the bottom to 3,000 metres at the top.   Theoretically it is possible to walk in a couple of hours from the village into the bowl at the foot of the cliffs but I didn't feel fit enough to do so and in any case there was snow and ice on the ground during my visit.

The Cirque de Gavarnie

SKI RESORT AT GAVARNIE GÈDRE

The west side of the cirque is a spur from the mountain chain and a road with many hairpin bends climbs up the western side of this spur to a another natural bowl below the chain's ridge line. I was tempted to try this as it had been snow-ploughed for most of the way until reaching the last few hundred metres to a modern ski-resort. There were a number of people about but they turned out to be resort workers preparing for the opening of the season in a week's time.

Looking Down on the Hairpins

A Mostly Empty Car Park

The Forester behaved impeccably in these freezing conditions with no hint of slipping or sliding about.

CIRQUE DE TROUMOUSE

To reach Gavarnie one has to pass through a village called Sassis at which there is a fork in the road to the mountains. On my return journey I first tried taking the other leg of the fork in order to see another Cirque that has no nearby holiday-centric village and is described as being much wilder.

Cirque de Troumouse

The cliffs aren't quite so high or sheer as those at Gavarnie but are wider and were easier to photograph because it was later in the afternoon and on a more favourable line of sight.

I haven't yet discovered how this Cirque was named with its strange combination of the English Mouse and the French Trou meaning Hole.     It is mentioned in Bradshaw's Guide published in the Victorian era so I can't help thinking it must have been an Englishman, probably an early recreational Mountaineer,  who first used the phrase as a humorous description that later became a name.