East of the Nive valley, you enter largely uninhabited country, known as the Haute Soule, threaded only by the GR10 and a couple of minor roads. The border between Basse Navarre and Soule skims the western edge of the Forêt d'Iraty, one of Europe's largest surviving beech woods, a popular summer retreat and winter cross-country skiing area. There are no shops or proper hotels until you reach Larrau, the only real village in these mountains, though the scattered hamlet of Ste-Engrâce in the east of the district has some facilities. There's even a downhill ski resort, westernmost in the Pyrenees, at Arette-la-Pierre-St-Martin, technically just over the border in Béarn but included here for convenience.The Haute Soule is a land of open skies, where griffon vultures turn on the thermals high above countless flocks of sheep (their occasional corpses providing sustenance for the vultures), with three vast gorges to explore. Although the overall distance from the Nive valley to the Béarn is not very great, the slowness of the roads (there's no public transport) and the GR10 – it's a day-and-a-half minimum from Estérençuby to Larrau – and the grandeur of the scenery seem to magnify it. Carrying a tent would give you the greatest flexibility: no one objects if you pitch it discreetly, though to be on the safe side you can always ask the nearest shepherd. For the latest on weather information in the western Pyrenees, call 08.36.68.02.64.
Pages in section ‘Haute Soule’: Iraty, Larrau .
| 