The valley of the Aspe begins at the grey town of OLORON-STE-MARIE, around 45km west of Lourdes, where the mountain streams of the Aspe and Ossau meet. It's served by train from Pau as well as by CITRAM buses, with five to seven daily SNCF buses continuing down the valley to Urdos, most of these continuing as far as Canfranc in Spain. The town's claim to fame is as the centre of the manufacture of the famous woollen pancake-shaped beret basque, once the standard headgear for all French men but now seldom seen. However, the only real points of interest for the visitor are the town's two churches: Ste-Croix, one of the oldest Romanesque buildings in Béarn, with unusual interior vaulting copied from the Great Mosque at Córdoba, and the Cathédrale Ste-Marie, which boasts an unusually beautiful Romanesque portal in Pyrenean marble. In the upper arch, the elders of the Apocalypse play violins and rebecs, while in the second arch scenes from medieval life – a cooper, the slaying of a wild boar, fishing for salmon – are represented. The gallant knight on horseback over the outer column on the right is Gaston IV, Count of Béarn, who commissioned the portal on his return from the first Crusade at the beginning of the twelfth century, hence the reference to Saracens in chains among the sculptures. The magnificent studded doors were a present from Henri IV. Inside, well away from the main area of worship, is a stoup reserved for use by the Cagots, a stark reminder of centuries-long persecution and segregation of this mysterious group of people, thought by some to have been lepers and by others to have been of Visigothic origin.Oloron's tourist office is in place de la Résistance (Mon–Sat 9am–12.30pm & 2–6.30pm; tel 05.59.39.98.00, www.ot-oloron-ste-marie.fr). There are a couple of reasonable hotels in town – the Hôtel de la Paix, 24 av Sadi-Carnot, near the train station (tel 05.59.39.02.63, fax 05.59.39.98.20; closed mid-Nov to mid-Dec; €30–40), and the nicer Hôtel Bristol at 9 rue Carréot (tel 05.59.39.43.78, fax 05.59.39.08.19; €30–40) – and a campsite, the Camping du Stade, on the D919 Arrette road (tel 05.59.39.11.26; closed Oct–March).
Pages in section ‘Oloron-Ste-Marie’: The Zaragoza–Bordeaux autoroute.
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