It's Official: We Love Cauterets.

We returned from our holiday yesterday, and have decided that Cauterets is the perfect place for us to visit. Neither of us are much into beaches and we both like mountain scenery.

Three years ago we went to Switzerland (read all about it here) and really enjoyed it. The scenery was excellent, as was the mountain driving, but neither of us particularly enjoyed the food, whereas Cauterets is a proper small French town with good restaurants and shops, and prices which are more or less what we would expect to pay at home. It also benefits from being a 19th century health resort with traditional architecture, rather than concrete monstrosities designed to cram as many skiers as possbile into the smallest of spaces.

Here are some pictures:

We had a one bedroom apartment in a 19th century hotel. Our balcony can be seen
above the roller shutter for the restaurant.

The mountains in Cauterets start where the town stops. The wooden building was the train station,
now the bus stop and theatre

The old casino, now the Cinema. It also has a swimming pool
tucked around the back

The cable car starts close to the middle of town, and it feels like it is vertical

There are a number of walks we didn't do and wish we had time for, and we didn't go swimming. Neither did we go to a spa (of which there are still a couple). We would also like to visit Lourdes, and some of the other small towns of the area (Gavarnie in particular, but maybe on a day when it isn't absolutely heaving with visitors).

We would also quite enjoy sharing our holiday with family and friends. Maybe when the dreaded pestilence is finished....