Central Pyrenees
France > Pyrénées > Central

Azun Valley © Jean Saint-Martin

The Central Pyrenees area, immediately east of the Pays Basque, is home to the range's highest mountain peaks and is the most spectacular part of the region, with the southernmost section, by the border, protected within the Parc National des Pyrénées Occidentales. Getting here is simple enough, at least as far as the foothill towns, by train on the Bayonne–Toulouse line. But travelling uphill and around once there can be very slow. The few buses – and most other traffic – keep mainly to the north-south valleys, which is frustrating when you want to switch from one valley system to the next without having to come all the way out of the mountains each time. The GR10 provides a good lateral link if you're ready to walk all the way, and it's possible to hitch up the valleys and across the main passes at Col d'Aubisque and Col du Tourmalet, though you'll find you often get left on the top by drivers who come up for the view and go back the same way.

Highlights – apart from the lakes, torrents, forests and 3000-metre peaks around Cauterets – are the cirques of Lescun, Gavarnie and Troumouse, each with its distinctive character. And for less hearty interests, there's many a flower-starred mountain meadow accessible by car, especially near Barèges and Bagnères-de-Luchon, in which to picnic. The only real urban centres are Pau, a probable entry point to the area, dull Tarbes and the tacky pilgrimage target of Lourdes. Great monuments of the bricks-and-mortar kind – with the exception of the fortified churches at Luz-St-Sauveur, St-Savin and St-Bertrand-de-Comminges – are equally scarce.