Hautes-Pyrénées department (65)
Prefecture : Tarbes
Subprefectures : Argelès-Gazost, Bagnères-de-Bigorre
Population : 235,000
Website : www.cg65.fr
Hautes Pyrenees has a population of 220,000, split between the three distinct sectors which form the department, mountains, valleys and plains. In the south, the Pyrenees is a natural barrier marking the Spanish border – 35 peaks reach 3,000 metres or more. Tourism is the main activity, especially thanks to Lourdes, the world’s second pilgrimage centre, and the Gavarnie Circus, a World Heritage site. Another important site is the Pic du Midi, which can be reached by a lift leading to the 600 m2 panoramic terraces revealing a breathtaking view on the summits. Ski resorts are plenty – 12 in all including Luz-Ardiden, Hautacam and St Lary, familiar to Tour aficionados. Hydrotherapy is also a tradition in Argeles-Gazost, Bareges-Barzun or Beaucens. An ideal Pyrenean meal always starts with a garbure, a soup made of beans, ham bone, bits of duck and goose confit, cabbage, carrots, turnip, onion and garlic.
KM 101,5 : LANNEMEZAN (Pop : 5,800)
Lannemezan means the middle moor and it bears its name well, between the hills of Comminges, the Magnoac foothills and the plain of Tarbes.
The town was always a commercial centre, its Wednesday market attracting the whle of the region. It kept few traces of its past except a 15th century church with lovely Gothic gates and 18th century altar-pieces. Lannemezan was once located on the Road of Salt. The position attracted bandits called the Bandouliers who used to attack the salt merchants. To tportect them, fortifications were built in 1270 on the moor of Bloc, next to the Le Guet Castle. Like most towns in the region, Lannemezan was the berth of several rugby internationals like Philippe Rouge-Thomas and Pierre Berbizier.
PLACE TO SEE
Barbe castle
Close to Peyrehicade and the Neste Canal, the castle was built by Benjamin Barbe (1818-1893) Hautes-Pyrénées councillor (1875), writer and journalist. The founder of Sunday newspaper L’Abeille, he died in his castle in 1893.
KM 104,5 : LA BARTHE-DE-NESTE (Pop : 1,200)
La Barthe-de-Neste was originally ruled by viscounts, the first of which was Sanche I (1180). The viscount ruled over four valleys. In the village centre can still be admired the House of the Four Valleys and the old castle on the banks of the Neste. LA Barthe is the heart of the Neste-Barronies territory, renowned for its natural treasures – Esprarros and Labastide caves – and for its architectural heritage – Montousse castle, a belonging of the French Kings from the 13th century to the Revolution.
KM 119 : SARRANCOLIN (Pop: 670)
Sarrancolin, a medieval fortified village, was long reputed for its marble. The town developed around a Benedictine priory known as early as the 11th century. The priory depended from the Simorre abbey and made it the capital of the Four Valleys (Aure, Neste, Barousse and Magnoac). The 12th century St Ebons church is contiguous to the ruins of the priory.
The industrial vocation of the town came from the extraction of marble from the 17th century on the sites of Beyrede, Ilhet and Sarrancolin. Already exploited by the Romans, the marble was used by architect Mansart to build the Petit Trianon in the Versailles castle, but also in several castles of the Loire, the Paris Opera House or the main entrance of the Empire State Building. Afterwards, the town saw the implantation of glassworks and mills.
In 1890, the railway to Arreau led to the installation of metal-works. In the 20th century, the main source of wealth became the abrasive corundum, which played a major role in the development of the area.
St Ebons church
Of genuine Romanesque style, it dates from the 11th and 12th centuries. Built in the shape of a Greek cross, its 15th century chancel is closed by a 16th century wrought iron gate. The stalls date from the Renaissance and the paintings and altar-pieces from the 17th century. The furniture is remarkable. Another riches is the 13th century St Ebons golden copper reliquary containing relics of the saint, who was bishop of Barbastro in Spain. Dead in 1104, he was buried in the nearby Benedictine monastery.
Canal of the Neste
More than 28 kilometres long, the canal starts from the Beyrede-Jumet dam in the Aure valley and ends on the Lannemezan plateau. It was dug in 1860.
KM 125,5 : ARREAU (Pop : 920)
A turning point in the St James Way, Arreau was an important drapery centre until the French Revolution. The 12th century Notre Dame church was used for the defence of the village and even included a fencing room. The St Exupere chapel, with elements from the 11th to 16th century, was named after a 4th century Arreau-born farmer, who became Toulouse bishop and died in 418. His sanctuary was first built on the spot where the chapel now stands.
The Nestes Castle (15th to 18th century) is a summary of 10 centuries of history in the Aure valley. Used to protect the nearby St Exupere sanctuary, it was restored in 1989 and its museum holds an intriguing exhibition on the “cagots”, the French equivalent of the untouchables in the Middle Ages.
Le château des Nestes
The 15th and 16th century castle stands at the junction of two Neste rivers: Neste d’Aurz and Neste de Louron. It served as a protection for the nearby sanctuary dedicated to St Exupere. It was restored in 1989 and listed as a Monument Historique. A former Templar commandery, it houses an intriguing museum on the “cagots”, a sort of medieval untouchables who were plenty in the region.
KM 127,5 : CADÉAC (Pop : 240)
Cadeac most interesting sight is the porch of the Notre-Dame de Pene-Tailhade chapel, overriding the road taken by the peloton. The Romanesque chapel as rebuilt in the 16th century. A former Roman spa town, it grew around its 13th century keep.
KM 129,5 : ANCIZAN (Pop : 330)
Ancizan is an old fortified village built at the foot of the Pic de l’Arbizon. An important linen centre, once the headquarters of the Aure Valley weavers corporation, it keeps several remains of its past. Several of the townhouses in the old town are historical. The church is remarkable for its furniture and especially for a painting of the Entombment of Christ. In 1953, a flood of the Erabat brook destroyed several buildings and reshaped the physiognomy of the town.
KM 141,5 : HOURQUETTE D’ANCIZAN (1538 m)
Hourquette d'Ancizan is a mountain pass between the valleys of Payolle and Aure. Hourquette means fork in gascon. The Tour de France never took the pass in the past. It is 10?2 kilometres long with an average slope of 7.9 pc.
KM 171 : LA MONGIE
Halfway up the Tourmalet pass, La Mongie is a hotspot for cycling and alpine skiing alike. Frequently crossed by the Tour, the resort also held alpine skiing World Cup races in 1985. At the foot of the Pic du Midi de Bigorre, La Mongie forms with Bareges the most important skiing domain in the French Pyrenees with 69 pistes and 42 lifts.
The village was named after monks who lived there in the Middle Ages. In the beginning of the 20th century, when the Tour rode through here for the first time, only a few shepherd houses existed. Skiing made a discreet start in 1920 but really took off in 1945 when the first lift was installed thanks to Pierre Lamy de la Chapelle, the resort founder. The domain is spread from 1,400 metres to 2,500 metres with La Mongie on the East side and Bareges on the West side. The link between the two resorts became effective in 1973.
La Mongie held three Tour stages and crowned three great winners: Bernard Thevenet (1970), Lance Armstrong (2002) and Ivan Basso (2004).
PIC DU MIDI
Before being an astronomic base, the Pic du Midi had been used for weather forecasts. As early as 1774, scientists Monge and Darcet climbed on top of it to study atmospheric pressure and in 1873, General de Nansouty installed a weather station in which he measured pressures, temperatures, humidity and other figures of interest. The first astronomic observations only started in 1884. Little by little, the observatory became devoted to a astronomy, botanic studies and cosmology. Threatened with destruction, it was saved in 1996 and open to the public in 2000.
STE MARIE DE CAMPAN FORGE
Eugene Christophe, known as the old Gaul, repaired his bike’s fork in this forge in the 1913 edition. A plaque reminds the feat.
KM 175,5 : COL DU TOURMALET
With 78 climbs, the Tourmalet is the most frequently visited pass on the Tour de France but it is also, at 1,115 metres high, one of the race summits with the 4th highest stage finish in 1974 (victory by Jean-Pierre Danguillaume).
Well known by shepherds, pilgrims or merchants, the pass means “bad detour” and it earned a bit of fame in 1675 when King Louis XIV’s mistress Madame de Maintenon went up it in a Sedan chair. The road between Luz and Bareges being flooded, the marquise and the Duke of Maine, the king’s son, were forced to travel across the mountain. Madame de Maintenon was the one who called the spa town where she spent the summer Bareges as it was called Bourg des Bains at the time.
The road was widened under Napoleon III and became the Thermal Road in 1864.
The Tour de France finally made the Tourmalet’s reputation. Climbed for the first time in 1910, it crowned Octave Lapize and then all the legends of the sport.
From Ste Marie de Campan, the climb is 16.9-kms-long with a percentage of 7.2 pc. At the top, a plaque pays homage to former Tour director Jacques Goddet. It was joined in 2010 by a plaque to honour Octave Lapize.
In 2011, the traditional Montée du Géant (Giant climb), renamed Laurent Fignon Memorial, took place on June 4 in the presence of Miguel Indurain. On the occasion the Laurent Fignon way, the historical climb from Bareges, was inaugurated. It is now reserved for cyclists.
KM 186,5 : BARÈGES (Pop : 240)
The Bareges valley; one of seven valleys in the Lavedan county, once was a small independent Republic with its own customs. It was called the valley of the Toys, inhabited by mountaineers who proudly defended their freedom and were never subdued.
The thermal baths were revived in the 18th century – after the visit of Madame de Maintenon – and the small thermal village became a commune in 1946. Its waters are used in traumatology, dermatology and to cure rheumatisms.
In 1675, Madame de Maintenon, mistress of King Louis XIV, went from Bareges to Bagneres de Bigorre by the Tourmalet in a Sedan chair. It was at the time, in spite of the altitude, the safest way to go since the valley road was often flooded or littered with stones. Francoise d’Aubigne, who was then 40, was looking after the Duke of Maine, the King’s son, who had come to Bareges to cure articular problems preventing him from walking normally. He would be a limp his whole life. Her nurse, who was made a marquise that year, always treated “the little duke” as her own son. The Duke of Maine spent most of the summer in Bareges and made some progress. “The Duke of Maine walks and even though it is not very vigorously there is ground to hope that he will some day walk like us”, Madame de Maintenon wrote in October.
The marquise returned to Bareges twice and always recommended the baths to her friends. She became the King’s mistress that same year and married him secretly nine years later.
Tourmalet botanic garden
On two ha of wild Pyrenean vegetation regrouped by species, the garden is free forall. Children games are available for pedagogic purposes.
KM 193,5 : ESTERRE (Pop : 215)
St Marie Castle
Built by the Count of Bigorre to hold the population of Barges at bay, the castle housed an English garrison during the Hundred Years War. Its remains are still visible.
