The first thing you notice coming into LARRAU from the west is how different the architecture is. In contrast to the gaily painted facades and tiled roofs of Labourd and Basse Navarre, the houses here are grey and stuccoed, with steep-pitched slate roofs to shed heavy snow. And, although it's the biggest place since St-Jean, it is nonetheless very small and quiet – almost dead out of season.There are two friendly hotels: the simple, old-fashioned Hôtel Despouey (tel 05.59.28.60.82; €30–40; closed mid-Nov to mid-Feb), with the local shop on the ground floor, and the fancier Hôtel-Restaurant Etchémaïté (tel 05.59.28.61.45, fax 05.59.28.72.71; €40–55; closed late Jan), with a superb restaurant serving such treats as guinea-fowl roulade with braised bacon and cabbage (closed Sun eve & Mon low season; menus €15 and €30; reservations advisable). There's one campsite in Larrau, the Ixtila (tel 05.59.28.63.09; closed mid-Nov to mid-March), and a gîte d'étape – with restaurant – 3km away at LOGIBAR (tel 05.59.28.61.14; closed Dec–Feb), close to the mouth of the Gorges d'Holzarte. This gorge is one of several in the region, cutting deep into northern slopes of the ridge that forms the frontier with Spain. A short track leads from Logibar across the turbulent and freezing stream to a car park, from where a steep, usually very busy path, a variant of the GR10, climbs through the beech woods to the junction of the Holzarte gorge with the Olhadybia (Olhadubi) in about 45 minutes. Slung across the mouth of the latter is a spectacular Himalayan-style suspension bridge, the passerelle, which bounces and swings dizzily as you walk out over the 180-metre drop. You can continue along the GR10 to Ste-Engrâce in seven hours, or down to the beginning of the Gorges de Kakouetta in about six: it is definitely worth the walk – in June and July, the open spaces are full of flowers (columbines, cranesbills, orchids and vetches), and, if you're lucky, you might see the beautiful, long-stemmed bimbette des Pyrénées.
Pages in section ‘Larrau ’: Kakouetta, Ste-Engrace.
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