Travel Guide for the Midi Pyrenees , France

Situated in the heart of south-west France, It is one of the largest regions in the country, with a landscape of ancient towns, villages, castles, Romanesque churches and an inexhaustible history. Its extensive agriculture makes it a region of farmers and peasants, producing a variety of crops. The gastronomic excellence of the Midi Pyrenees is unquestionable, whether you dine in a Relais-Château or in a local inn, you will taste wonderful foie gras, cassoulet, roquefort and drink local wines such as Fronton, Gaillac, Cahors and of course Armagnac.


The Pays de Sault

If you haven’t got a car or a bike, the magnificient Pays de Sault – the upland area bounded by the Aude, the Ariege and the main road from Quillan to Foix – can be crossed in a few days on foot, making occasional use of the sporadic public transport.


Montsegur - The village of Montsegur is strung out in terraced lines at the foot of its castle rock. Silent and depopulated now, the place comes to life only with the influx of tourists, most of them day-trippers. It's worth having a glance at the one-room museum, with its collection of bits and pieces from...


Montsegur Castle - Perched with 1200 meters of altitude, the vestiges of the current place of Montsegur do not owe large any more thing in Cathares. The fortress theatre of the terrible events of the year 1244 was the subject of a total reorganization in second half of 13th Century. The place remains however in...



Vicdessos Valley

Vicdessos Valley - Steep-sided, damp-smelling and lined with delicious forest, the Vicdessos valley is typical of the Haute-Ariege: a hard place to live in winter. But it does have some intrinsic interest - specifically castles at Miglos and Montreal de Sos – aside from being the most convenient French corridor...


Mas d’Azil & Labouiche


Mas d’Azil - Crossed by the river Arize and the main road, the Mas d'Azil cave is one of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world. The Azilian Age (app. 8000 B.C.), characterized by small flint tools, colourfully decorated pebbles, and finely carved harpoons, borrows its name from the cave. Many of the...

Labouiche - Six kilometres northwest of Foix, the underground river at Labouiche; usually a fifteen-minute wait; it is the longest navigable subterranean river in Europe. The visit consists of a barge trip lasting one and a quarter hours, along 1km of the river, 60m underground, to admire its stalactites and...

Pyrenees National Park

Pyrenees National Park - Created in 1967, the Pyrenees National Park stretches for about 100km (60mi) along the French-Spanish border and covers an area of 460 sq km (180 sq mi) that contains hundreds of high-altitude lakes and the highest point in the French Pyrenees, the 3300m (10,825ft) Sommet du Vignemale. Forested...

Cauterets - The valley of Argeles welcomes you in one of the most beautiful and wonderful lands of the world in the Pyrenees. Thanks to this site, you will be able to prepare your holidays entirely at home. You'll find all you need to know about lodging, restaurants and bars, the entire discovery you can do (Pont ...

Luz Saint Sauveur - The double spa-village of Luz-Saint-Sauveur, in two distinct quarters straddling the confluence of the Gavarnie and Bastan rivers, lies 12km south of Pierrefitte-Nestalas. Luz-Saint-Sauveur owes its reputation as a spa town to Napoleon III and his wife, the empress Eugenie. The spa buildings…

Gavarnie - From the Ossau, you need to head east to Luc St Saveur in central Pyrennes, about a half hours drive below Gavarnie. The valley runs south from Lourdes to the Cirque de Gavarnie, and is much more of a tourist destination, with pony rides up to view the Cirque, a really impressive expanse of rock, ...

Bareges - Coiled in its green valley, Bareges offers nature and fresh air. Front door of the Massif of Neouvielle, Bareges concentrates to him only all the beauties of Pyrenees. In 1250 m of height, relaxed rhythm of life and pleasure of the discovery become allied to make you live unforgettable holidays. ...

St Savin - St-Savin is a pleasant quiet village, between Lourdes and Cauterets. Its main interest is the 12th century abbey-church, with later fortifications and a fine Romanesque doorway.

Pont d'Espagne - Leave Cauterets on the waterfall path and you will reach Le Pont d'Espagne, one of the most beautiful and most popular sites in the Pyrenees. Precautions have had to be taken to be able to host the million tourists that visit it each year while protecting the environment. From there you can walk or...


Lourdes & Around

Lourdes - Between 11th February and 16th July 1858, the Virgin Mary, appeared at the Grotto of Massabielle on 18 occasions to Bernadette Soubirous, a young girl of 14 years from a family of bankrupt millers. The words and actions that the Virgin exchanged with Bernadette form the Message of Lourdes: a call...

Argeles-Gazost - Argeles-Gazost, 13km south of Lourdes, is an innocuously dull if rather congested spa that makes a possible base for the lower Gave de Pau. The town itself extends from the valley floor, quite broad here, up to the busy medieval core on a terrace to the west.

Aucun - At Aucun, 9km above Argeles-Gazost, the Musee Montagnard du Lavedan has a private collection of traditional Bigourdan agricultural and household items. The uncluttered village church of Saint-Pierre is also worth a glance for its apsidal south transept (the oldest, eleventh-century bit), a...



Baronnies

Baronnies - One of the emptiest areas of the Pyrenees, the Baronnies lie between the lower valleys of the Adour and Aure, bounded to the north by the D938 CapvernBagneres-de-Bigorre road and to the south by the D918 linking Sainte-Marie-Campan with Arreau. This desertion is owed to a landscape too undulating...

Abbaye de l’Escaladieu - Three kilometers southwest and downhill from Mauvezin in the valley bottom, towards Bagneres-de-Bigorre, you will find the Abbaye de l’Escaladieu, the First Cistercian monastery in the southwest of France. Founded in the middle of the twelfth century, Escaladieu flourished for just a couple...



The Ariege

Oust - Oust is a small, peaceful village in the Couserans region of the Ariège Pyrenees, situated at the confluence of the Garbet and Salat rivers. It's the ideal point of departure for exploring the many tourist sites in the Couserans and Ariege as well as the nearby mountains: Mont Valier (2,838 ...

St-Martin-d'Oydes - If you take the scenic route from Toulouse along the Leze river valley, you'll see a sign for St-Martin d'Oydes a short distance after the turnoff for Carla-Bayle, a hilltop medieval fortified village also worth visiting. For the past several years, before and since he became the British Prime...

Massat - The canton of Massat in the Ariege Pyrenees is a mountain land unto itself, its villages, hamlets and stone barns dotting the forested hillsides and lush valleys, with the high peaks standing sentinel. Above the Arac River, some of the most beautiful cols in the region offer magnificent panoramas...

Ax Valley - About 130 centuries ago, superb artists of the Magdalenian period left marvelous paintings on the limestone walls of caves deep in the mountains, including the cave at Niaux, whose artwork is known world-wide. Megaliths such as the dolmens of Tignac and Merens indicate the presence of humans in the...

Le Carla Bayle - Medieval Bastide, then citadel Huguenot, her patrimony testifies of prestigious past. It is here that was born, in 1647, the philosopher Pierre Bayle, precursor of "the Spirit of the Lights" of the XVIII-th century, and the museum of which redraws the life and the work. In the village, ...

Camon - The village of Camon built himself around the abbey that Charlemagne would have based in 778: the 1-st inventoried act giving evidence of its existence dates however only 923, and following the rule by Saint sanctimonious. The abbey strengthened will be destroyed twice. The arrival in 1502 of...

Mazeres - Being situated at feet of Lauragais, in 60 km from Toulouse and in the doors of Pyrenees, Mazeres developed in the rich plain of Hers. Neolithic, Roman site, visigothique, Mazeres's bastide was creates in 1253 by the act of pareage between Counts de Foix and the abbots of Boulbonne's abbey. ...

Pamiers - Prehistory, Adventure, Catharisme, gradious landscape, Romanic Art, protected nature it is what proposes you Pamiers in the Ariege Pyrenees. The Patrimony Appameen testifies of the glorious and prosperous past of the city and its prosperity in Moyen-Age: bell towers, towers, houses with...

Villages of the Azun Valley - Ten villages in Azun's valley to make you discover Pyrenees: Arbeost (summer hamlet), Arcizans-Dessus (along the brook), Arras-en-Lavedan (around the fountain), Arrens-Marsous (in bottom of valley), Aucun (the administrative centre of canton), Bun (on a calcareous projecting ledge), Estaing...

Loures Barousse - You enter in one of the most charming of the valleys of Central Pyrenees. The natural and human patrimony is exceptional. Please, discover and know how to appreciate him (it) in the just value. The words which reign in boss over this territory are the purity of the nature, the respect for the life...


Saint Girons and Saint Lizier

Saint Lizier - Saint Lizier is an ancient roman town rich in art and history and which is officially classed among the most beautiful villages of France. Situated at the foot of the Pyrenees in the department of Ariege, the city is a magnificient belvedere with a view of the mountains of the Couserans region.

Aret - Has the last sabot-making workshop in Bethmale Valley or The Vallee de Bethmale, open all year for purchases. The curvy-pointed clogs were traditionally exchanged as tokens of betrothal between the newly engaged.

Audreissen - Audreissen has a medieval church of Notre-Dame de Tramezaygues, built at the confluence of the Lez and the Bourgane, venue for a lively September 8 festival. At other times, its highlight is an unrivalled collection of fourteenth-century frescoes, well restored in the in the late 1980s, adorning...

Saint Girons - Saint Girons, city of Courserans, rocked by the water of the Salat which shelters golden glitter, welcomes you. You can through a conducted tour go back up (raise) the time of Moyen-Age until XX-th century through: Church of Saint Girons and Saint-Valier's church. You can also visit the class 1900...


Garonne & Comminges

Garonne River - The River draining the Val d’Aran begins life as the Garona, then in France becomes Garonne, swinging northeast through Saint-Gaudens and Toulouse, and northwest to the Atlantic at Bordeaux.

Bagneres-de-Luchon - Along with Gavarnie, the spa resort of Bagneres-de-Luchon -13km south of Marignac on the River Pique – has long been one of the lodestars for Pyrenean explorers. Luchon re-entered history in the eighteenth century, when Jacques Barrau and Baron Antoine d’Etigny revived the thermal baths...

Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges - Founded by Pompey in 72 BC, Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges was first called Lugdunum Convenarum. Under the walls of its cathedral lay over 2000 years of history. This vast and prosperous ancient town, many vestiges of which may be seen even today, hosted an ancient Christian community and church...

Valcabrere - Valcabrere is a little village of rough stone barns and open lofts for hay-drying, with the beautiful Romanesque church of Saint Just, whose square tower rises above a cemetery full of cypress trees. Special interest has fine sculptures of the north the portal and the apse, decorated with 10...


Vallee d’Aure

Aragnouet - Beyond several hamlets which comprise the commune of Aragnouet, just north of the D118, stands an intriguing twelfth-century Templar chapel (usually locked). Its almost windowless and plain exterior gives nothing away, though the jagged perpendicular edge of its tall clocher-mur suggests that there...

Arreau - Arreau occupies a strategic position at the meeting point of the Aure and Louron rivers. Half-way between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Arreau was probably a stopover on the ancient path between Iberia and Aquitaine. In the middle ages, it was a busy, powerful centre dominating four valleys. ...

Aure Valley - The Aure valley is made up of a vast plain, where most of the inhabitants live, and a fifteen-kilometre long corridor. In the past, the valley's wealth came from the textile industry and its lead sulphide mines, but now tourism is its key to success. A stone's throw from the Pyrenean National Park...

Vallee du Louron - A well-preserved valley, Louron was practically self-sufficient up to 1850, sheltered from commercial fashions. Traditionally, the flocks of villagers were all looked after as one large flock by one or two shepherds. In the XIXth century, the valley was opened up by Napoleon III's spa road. In the...

Aulon - Aulon is an appealing old village at the base of Pic l’Arbizon.

Vielle Aure - Vielle Aure is situated in 70 km of Tarbes and 160 Toulouse at a height included between 800 m and 3092 metres. Modernity, charm and comfort, a trilogy which declines in Vielle-Aure. Situated in the heart of Aure valley, close to Saint-Lary's ski resorts (also health resort) and Piau-Engaly, not...

Canton of Barthe de Neste - At feet of the Tray of Lannemezan and of Aure valley, Canton of Barthe de Neste is a natural crossroads of the civilizations of the Prehistory in our days. It counts twenty villages grouped together within the two valleys of Neste and Baronnies. Two nearby entities among 500 and 2000 metres in...

Canton of Saint Laurent de Neste - Situated east of the department of High Pyrenees, snuggled up between the Valley of Aure and Valley of Aran, the Valley of Nistos is a small case of green and mossy where spring torrents and waterfalls. In winter in Nistos Cap Nestes's station, cross-country skiing, rackets, sled, within the...

Piau Engaly - Piau-Engaly's station is situated in 180 km from Toulouse and close to Saint-Lary, in the heart of the mountain. On one side Pyrenees Piau's station and valley of the other one Spain is other one of it. From Piau, Pyrenees invite you in walks and in varied drives: the Park Nartional du Neouvielle...