Hiking in the French Pyrenees – Part Three

Pic du Midi d’Ossau

Unlike the other areas of the French Pyrenees, Pic du Midi stands alone. It’s a huge isolated slab of rock that towers above Lac de Pombie and it was a pleasant hike of about two hours to reach the lake and Refuge de Pombie. It was another popular hike and the bus we followed up the narrow winding road released a group of about sixty senior citizens – they made us feel quite young as most must have been in their eighties – into the car park. There is definitely a hiking culture in France – slow and steady gets you there seems to be the philosophy. We had time on this hike to be a bit lazy for a change and simply drink in the view and enjoy the wildflowers.

Pic du Midi and Lac de Pombie (2032 metres)

More delicate wildflowers

Chris contemplating the Ossau Valley and our car parked below

The second hike in the Pic du Midi d’Ossau area was a long circuit with the almost compulsory challenging height gain, this time about 800 metres. We started at Lac de Bious-Artigues. First we walked beside the lake, then the river flowing into the lake and eventually into a forest and out onto lovely green buttercup pastures. From this point on, Pic du Midi was clearly visible.

A large section of the trail took us past a group of lakes, Lacs d’Ayous, the first being Lac Roumassot at 1845 metres, then Lac du Miey and finally, after climbing up beside a beautiful waterfall, Lac Gentau and the Refuge d’Ayous.

‘We’re going to come back down that valley.’

Woodland

Lac Roumassot

The route up to Lac du Miey

Lac Gentau and Refuge d’Ayous

Nature’s garden

Lac Gentau and Pic du Midi from Refuge d’Ayous

The path continued on past several more tarns with spectacular views down into the valley and across to Pic du Midi. It was a glorious day, tending towards hot, but a gusty wind kept us cool as we walked. We ate lunch on a rise looking down the valley in one direction and onto a crystal clear tarn in the other. It couldn’t have been better. Then the inevitable long descent, made interesting because the view of this vast and magnificent landscape kept changing. After the long descent and a total of sixteen kilometres in distance, we were glad to reach the car park and the prospect of a beer back at the hotel.

Pic du Midi and wild azaleas in the foreground

The route down to the valley

This circuit made a superb finish to our Pyrenees’ hiking, but with one more day to go and temperatures of 38 degrees predicted for the valley, we opted to go high again and make use of the Train d’Artouste, a tourist train touted as being the highest in Europe. To get to the train you ascended in a telecabine then boarded the small train – this looked remarkably like something in a fun park for kids. It was, thankfully, much sturdier than it looked because it went up the side of an immense valley with some very long drops. After this precipitous journey, the passengers had an hour to climb up a short way to a lake then make the train journey in reverse. Spectacular, but we thought hiking was better.

Train d’Artouste entering a tunnel

And going up the valley. The journey up took over an hour, a bit faster coming back

So ends our twelve days of hiking in the beautiful Pyrenees.

END of HIKING in the FRENCH PYRENEES – Part Three