About Cauterets

Cauterets has a very long history, stretching back to the Neolithic. There are supposedly many stone circles and dolmens in the area, although we have never seen them (or found them on a map). Later, the Romans identified the hot springs and built baths, traces of which have been found on terraces near the town.

The town didn't really gain popularity until the 18th century, when reliably passable roads were built, and people returned to take the waters. This reached its peak in the 19th century, when some of the spa buildings that can still be seen around the area were built, as well as the casino that now houses the cinema, a bar and the municipal swimming pool. The town was connected by electric train to the national network in 1899, and a couple of years before that a tramway had been built from Cauterets up the valley to the spa at La Raillère.

The tram station at Cauterets, built by the Eiffel company.

The area was a great favorite of the Romantics. The mountains and wild nature attracted a number of wealthy (and very interesting) adventurers, who came to conquer nature whilst admiring and no doubt getting a frisson from how terrible (in the old sense of the word) it all was.

After the spa and taking the waters boom of the 19th century faded, Cauterets began to sink into obscurity. There were ski clubs started, but many of the winter sports tourists headed instead to the more fashionable Alps. Plans for hydro-electric dams in the valley were defeated in the 1950s, and this led to the declaration of the Pyrenees National Park in 1967. The railway from Lourdes had closed in 1949 and the tramway to La Raillère closed in 1970, but by then a cable car from the centre of town to the Cirque du Lys had been built and the tourists were starting to return.

The cable car to the Cirque du Lys starts close to the centre of town.

Not that life has been consistantly easy since then. In 2013 the road towards Lourdes (and the town's connection to the outside world) were washed away in a flood that also destroyed a number of  buildings in town. This resulted in the "laces" which can be seen at 3:50 in the video we took last year. The road was damaged again earlier this year, once again isolating the town, and also destroying telephone and internet connections. Our host Celine said it was slightly difficult - but rather nice.

The Rooftops of Lyon

 

Stabilising

If you had looked really closely at the background of last Thursday's photo (but why would you?) you would have noticed something a little odd. We certainly didn't notice it at the time.

In fact, it wasn't until the next day, as Susan and I were making our way to the station to leave Lyon, that I realised there was a bit of a commotion drifiting across the river. We couldn't quite work out what it was about, but there was what sounded like quite a heated discussion mixed in with machinery of some kind - we couldn't see anything anwhere you would expect to see people discussing things.

And then we lifted our eyes:

It looks like they are drilling holes in the cliff face to insert some sort of reinforcing, probably steel rods, to stabilise the rocks. The building below is the offices of the canal company. We have seen similar work done in caves, and the results of this sort of activity in rock faces above mountain roads, and we have even seen similar rods being used to hold up the cliffs of the Cité Royale in Loches, but we have never watched it being done in the middle of a big city.

Serendipity

It's just that the moon happened to be in the right place. The photo was taken in Lyon, 4 weeks ago.

It's amazing... In some ways Lyon feels like it was longer ago than 4 weeks, but in others it feels so recent. I suppose it's because we have been so busy and done so much lately that time has felt really random.

Brocante Time

Last Saturday was Preuilly's brocante.

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, Translation of brocante – French–English dictionary:
brocante noun  [ feminine ] /bʀɔkɑ̃t/ (activité commerciale) vente d’objets anciens : secondhand goods trade.

According to Susan, Brocante = junk. We don't ever buy stuff at the brocante, and you can tell how interested we are by the fact that it would appear from our photo index that we didn't go last year. In fact we did go, but I remember saying to Susan "we can't blog that, I didn't take a photo".

This year we went after swimming to buy lunch, which was very well organised, and quite good value. Two sausages and chips (fries) for 6€. If you look carefully you can see Susan lining up for lunch (with The Vicar in the forground).

While waiting for lunch I recalled that 16 years ago we picnicked on the banks of the Claise prior to signing for our house. You can read about that event here.

Get your Motor Runnin'

Head out on the highway!
(But wait for the green light first)

Photos taken by Rosy when we were in Lyon. You know how sometimes it's hard not to stare?

Earworm? You're welcome!

It Looks Like We're Getting Fibre

I can't absolutely swear to it, but all day yesterday we had men with a cherry picker up and down our street, installing not so little grey boxes on walls, posts and brackets. For a couple of years now there have been promises that fibre is coming, and there has been a lot of hole digging and cable laying, but so far the fibre has reached the Claise river and no further.

It has to be said that the new infrastructure hasn't improved the streetscape any.

The Electric Walking Stick

I wrote yesterday about the need to carry walking poles in the Pyrenees. Susan did - one in each hand, but I improvised with the electric walking stick.

Many years ago (possibly as long ago as 2008) Susan's father gave us a camera monopod. It has been woefully underused util last week, when I realised I could kill two birds with one stone: carry a stick and always have a camera ready.

It worked really well, even if the rubber tip wore out and I really needed two sticks. It's a start though, and I am sure I can come up with a solution.

The camera is really light, and wasn't really noticeable on the end of the stick. It meant that I could really quite quickly turn the camera on and fire off a couple of shots, some of which you have already seen on the blog.

Unfortunately half way through our second walk the battery of the camera went flat, and when we returned to the apartment I discovered that I had every type of USB cable under the sun - except the one I needed to charge the camera battery. There weren't any suitable cables on sale anywhere we went, so I had to improvise.

But more on that later.

Advice on Walking in the Pyrenees

We love the Pyrenees, especially around Cauterets. Get a couple of kilometres out of town and you're properly in the mountains. It's why we returned this year, armed with plans for walk we wanted to do.

And here's where the blog post starts...

Advice online is rubbish, and the signposting is worse. Take, for instance, the walk we did on Friday 22 July. The website says it's 10.71km, taking 2 hours out the outward leg, and 1.5 hours on the return, with an altitude gain of 430 metres with a "bon sentier facile d'access".

I tracked us on a Garmin GPS watch as we did the walk. For starters. the watch recorded a return trip of 11.82km. It took us three hours and 33 minutes to get to the far end, and about the same on the return. We gained 463 metres in altitude, and the path...

Yes, those rocks you can see in the photo below are the path. Every step has to be observed, and woe betide if you're not using walking sticks, because the rocks aren't secure - they all move underfoot. Except for the boulders, which are so big an earthquake couldn't shift them. But they can be quite slippery, so there's no gain.

Then there is the climbing. The photo below is by no means the worst of it. There is no photo of the worst of it because no-one stops, they just keep slogging. Maximum slope my watch recorded was 46%.

You can see by the desirelines in the photo below what most people think of the path. I can understand laying down rocks to save the path from erosion, but when you lay down rocks so rough the only option is to NOT use the path you're rather defeating the purpose.

But you can also see the view that makes it all worthwhile.

I suppose the times given by the website are accurate - if you don't stop to look at the view, take photos, observe the wildlife, take caution not to have to be rescued by helicopter and have trained all your life to be a fell runner. But I do wonder how old the advice on the path is, because it's definitely NOT an easy going path.

Would we do it again?  In a shot! But we would allow twice the time, carry proper walking poles in each hand, and wear boots with excellent ankle support. We would disregard the signposts (most of which point in a vaguely wrong direction) because they only give time to destination, not distance. We would carry snacks, and we would lower our expectations of being back in time for an afternoon beer or catching the last chairlift home.

Apartment in Cauterets

We rented the same apartment in Cauterets that we had last year, and it strangely felt like returning to a second home. We knew where stuff was, we knew how it worked, and we knew which boulangerie was best for breakfast.

Jean-Louis and Celine are great hosts, and no-one knows the mountains quite like Jean-Louis - he even has a French Wikipedia page. He says that being in the mountains is about walking and experiencing the wild - not just climbing, and Susan reckons he was quite impressed by the walks we did. We didn't go canyoning, mountain climbing, or on overnight hiking trips with him - we're flatland people, and we do most of our exercise at low altitude. Plus we are embarrasingly unfit compared to our host.

Although the apartment is right in the centre of town, and surrounded by restaurants (our apartment is the balcony immediately above the green umbrella), it's surprisingly quiet at night. All the windows are double glazed and have roll down shutters, and most of the action in the streets is over before midnight.

There's no parking (the bottom photo is our car, but being packed early in the morning for departure) but there is plenty of free long term parking within 5 minutes walk.

It sounds slightly un-ambitious, but we're already thinking of returning next year.

Home Again

We arrived home at about 17:30 yesterday, having driven 1560km, walked further than we have ever walked on holiday before, and taken 1725 photos. We have also had 5 picnics, and eaten in 5 different restaurants and two mountain refuges. All in ten days away.

Preuilly was looking good - but slightly dry - when we arrived home.

Mind Officially Blown

Yesterday we saw this

we saw this

 and we saw this

Font de Gaume Cave Painting
Author http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/conservation/fr/grottes/Pageshtm/11714.htm
CC Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Picnic

We left Cauterets yesterday, and drove to Les Eyzies along the N21. We had bought some stuff in the Carrefour at Cauterets and had a vey nice picnic here.

If we did spectacular every day you would get the wrong idea...

Gavarnie: Mist Again

Last year when we were in the Pyrenees we went to Gavarnie, thought it was too crowded, and moved on.

This year we decided to try again, but once again it was crowded. The town's population was 114 in 2019, yet it has three car-parks the size of Mars, all of which were "complet" when we arrived.  An out of season (whenever that is) visit may be in order.

Instead, we went up Col des Tentes, as we did last year. The cloud was rising up the valley so it was less condusive for walking and we settled on a little stroll and some light gawking. We only saw one vulture, and the marmots were less in evidence.

It was still a win, though.

A Drive in the Mountains

Yesterday was a warm day - even at 1800 metres it was in the mid-thirties. It;s just as well that we drove rather than walked. And what a drive!

Tour de France followers will be excited by the names: Col de Pourtalet, Col de Soulor (in all three directions) and Col de Aubisque. Lots of hills and switchbacks, and amazing views the whole time.

The route to Pourtalet:

and the route back:

and a couple of views:

Top of the Col de Soulor (also the first photo taken with my new phone)

Col de Pourtalet looking into Spain

The town of Gourette, from the restaurant "les Cretes Blanches", half way up the Col de Aubisque

 An excellent - if hot - day, with plenty to catch the eye

An easy day - up a big mountain

Yesterday we were going to do a light reprise of a walk we did last year - that is, doing the first 350 metres of a long walk we did last year, but turning right instead of left and walking another 500 metres before returning to the start.

Instead, we had lunch half way up a mountain after riding the cable car, then caught the chairlift to the start of the walk before deciding it was all too much effort and returning by the same means.

When we left the apartment Cauterests was misty and damp and dull, but half way up in the cable car we emerged through the cloud into bright sunshine. In this photo you can see where Cauterets is, even if you can't see it.

By the time we arrived back four hours later the cloud was gone and Cauterets was warm and sunny. This photo shows the cloud breaking up. The restaurant we ate at is the buiding seemingly on the edge of the precipice, and in the middle of the horizon the Pic de Midi.

Walking to Estom

So tired.....

It took us three hours up, and about the same back. Mind you - the views were OK.

It was sunny on the way up, but during lunch we could see clouds coming up the valley. The last 3 km we descended into thick cloud, visibilty about 25 metres. The path wasn't as rough as Wednesday, but it was still challenging

I have no doubt that at some stage Susan will write about it.

Lunch at the Cataracts

After Wednesday's excitement, yesterday we took it easy, with a 2.8km walk to lunch (and a 2.8km walk back, of course. It was hotter than Wednesday.

We had the 18€ menu at the Abri du Benques, and very nice it was, too. We both had Garbure (fridge soup) followed by trout in hollandaise sauce and ending with a myrtilles (blueberry) melba. The view is fine, and service is excellent - it's a very classy restaurant.

The setting is impressive, as you reach the restaurant by a bridge over a raging torrent. There is a terrace from where you can see two cataracts, and a very cooling breeze.

Just a Little Walk

Last year we lunched at Lac de Gaube, and I remember thinking at the time that it's a pity we couldn't walk up to the foot of the glacier.

When we were at home planning this trip I discovered that you could, in fact, walk to a refuge near the base of the glacier, and what's more it's only two and a half hours up. And two hours back. Plus, it's an easy walk.

Well....

The view from the refuge is spectacular,

 

the view as you walk up to the refuge (hidden to the right of the waterfall) is spectacular,

and the path is... that jumble of rocks in the foreground.

We started at about 11am, we were up at the refuge by 3pm (where we scored lunch), and we were back at the start by 9pm, having missed the last chairlift down the last bit of hill by only two hours and having to walk an extra 4km. In all we covered about 18km, much of it rock hopping. On the way up we gained 425 metres in altitude, and on the way down we dropped 692 metres.

There will be a more comprehensive report at some stage, no doubt, but I'm off to bed. (This was written last night, on the grounds that I may not ever be able to stand up again.)

Driving to Cauterets

Well! We're on holiday and the drive down was trouble free, despite my worries of excessive heat, smoke, fires, and traffic.

The smoke was noticeable when we left home, and by the time we were south of Poitiers we could smell it as well as see it. Around Bordeaux it was quite thick and everything had a red tinge and a vague look. Luckily (!) the smoke was stopping the sun heating the air, and the temperature was mid 20s Celcius most of the day.

The view from our lunch spot on the quai at Langon, on the Garonne

We arrived in Cauterets an hour earlier than we had allowed for, as our lunch stop was perfunctory rather than luxurious - it was warm, sweaty and smokey.