The Pyrenees

by Hilaire Belloc

There are on this road two points, one just after one leaves the railway line, not quite half-way to Tarbes on the climb up to Vignan, the other just before the loop and descent above Ibos, which afford fine views of the range to the south, and one begins to gather one’s general impression of these mountains, which, more than any other range, present an appearance of simplicity and the united effect of a barrier. Tarbes, less than 30 miles from Pau, may seem a short run for one day from Bayonne, but it breaks the journey exactly and conveniently.

After Tarbes (where the hotel for you is the Hotel Des Ambassadeurs) the road goes through much broken country, passing by Tournay up on the high plateau of Lannemezan to Montréjeau. It is a road full of short hills, but it is necessary to take this section in order to go eastward from Montréjeau and to proceed through St. Gaudens, taking an elbow by St. Martary and so down to St. Girons.

After St. Girons one follows the new and excellent road which runs along the valley side by side with the new railway to Foix. From Foix to Nalzen your way is to go along the main road from Foix up the Ariège Valley for some 4 miles and then turn to the left, leaving the railway and making due east. From Nalzen continue to Lavenalet; there take the right-hand road to Belesta and Belcaire; thence, when you have crossed the plateau, a very winding road takes you down hundreds of feet, on to Quillan. After Quillan you have a few miles through the very little known and wonderful gorges of Pierre Lys to St. Martin, through which gorges the railway accompanies you. Do not follow it round by Axat, but cut across by the road which goes eastward to La Pradelle. This road takes you across a low pass to the watershed of the Mediterranean. From La Pradelle to Perpignan the road is a perfectly clear one through St. Paul and Estagel. It is a straight, good road, following the valley all the way, save the last stretch, which runs across the plains between the river Agly and the Tet.

This second day will of course be far longer than the first; it is nearer 200 miles than 120. If you would break it, however, break it rather after the short run to St. Girons, than at Foix, for though Foix be nearly the half-way house, yet the accommodation is better at St. Girons, and so is the cooking.

A two days’ run of this kind from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, following such a route, gives you the whole distant range in one general appearance, and gives it you better than you will have along any other line with which I am acquainted.

The way back by the upper road from east to west through the Pyrenees is a piece of travel quite peculiar to these mountains; nowhere else in Europe is there a lateral road driven right across the buttresses or supports of a main range. The Pyrenees possess such a road in their highest part. What the French have done here is as though the Italians had driven a road from the sources of the Dora Baltea right under Mont Rosa, and the Matterhorn to Lake Maggiore, or as though the Swiss had driven one from Faido and Fusia right over into the valley of Domo d’Ossola. From Tarascon in the valley of the Ariège to Laruns in the Val d’Ossau—that is, over all the central part of the chain and for just over half its length—a mountain road goes right up against the main heights (only once coming near the lowlands at St. Girons), crossing the high, perilous passes which lie between the upper valleys. By taking advantage of this new piece of engineering you can return from Perpignan to Bayonne through the midst of those hills which the road just described from Bayonne to Perpignan showed you in a distant general view: when you have so returned you will have seen the heart, the French Pyrenees.

I will now describe such a return journey by the upper road. From Perpignan you will do well to run the first day to Ax. The road is the great road from the Roussillon into France. You go up the valley of the Tet (which is the main river of the Roussillon) through Prades with the Canigou first right in front of you, and at last rising steeply to your left. You continue through Prades up the gorges and tortuous zigzags of the Upper River until you come to the head of the pass at Mont Louis: there the broad and easy valley of the Cerdagne opens to the south, sloping gently before you. The road runs down, almost as in a plain, to Bourg Madame, where you must turn to the right up the Val Carol to Porté. The pass above Porté (called the “Puymorens”) though long, is of an easy gradient, and once over it you run down all the 18 miles to Ax, following the valley of the Ariège.

Ax is, of course, an early stopping-place. The whole distance from Perpignan is under 140 miles, but Ax is so much more comfortable than Tarascon that it is better to make one’s halt there.

Next day go down the valley as far as Tarascon and there take the mountain road off to the left; it is not a national[1] road but it has a perfectly good surface in spite of a considerable climb. One little col comes almost immediately at Bedeillac, after that you climb steadily up the valley to the Col-du-Port (which is about 4000 feet high) then down the mountain side to Massat, which lies on the western side of the pass and about 2000 feet below it. Thence it is an ordinary valley road until you come to St. Girons again.

[1] The French metalled roads are of three main kinds, supported by the State, the County and the Parish respectively. Of these the first and most important are called “National Road.”