The Rough Guide to the Pyrenees 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) PDF
Preview The Rough Guide to the Pyrenees 6 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)
Rough Guides • Broaden your horizons Explore every corner of the Pyrenees using the clearest maps of any guide. Choose where to go and what to see, inspired by dozens of photos. Read expert background on everything from Pyrenean cave art to the region’s abundant wildlife. Rely on our selection of the best places to stay and eat, for every budget. It’s like having a local friend help plan your trip. “The best general guide . . . contains piles of info on local accommodation.” Adventure Travel, UK “The best book.” The Sunday Times, UK THE ROUGH GUIDE to The Pyrenees OTHER ROUGH GUIDES www.roughguides.com INCLUDE: Published I S B N 978-1-84353-766-3 USA $19.99 by Rough Guides Can $24.99 Distributed UK £13.99 by The Penguin Group 9 7 8 1 8 4 3 5 3 7 6 6 3 Pyrenees_Pub_cover.indd 1 16/5/07 3:22:37 pm ROUGHGUIDES The Pyrenees ROUGHGUIDES PHRASEBOOK WITH AUDIO FILES MAP 1:250,000 About the author Marc Dubin first went to the Pyrenees in 1986 and has since returned numerous times to both sides of the range, on one occasion toting a 23-kilo pack through the mountains while researching a hiking guide to Spain. Marc’s downhill skiing technique slowly improves as he works his way, with each edition, through the various Pyrenean resorts. He is also the author of the Rough Guide to Cyprus and co-author of Rough Guides to Greece, the Greek Islands and Turkey. About this book Rough Guides are designed to be good to read and easy to use. The book is divided into the following sections and you should be able to fnd whatever you need in one of them. The introductory colour section is designed to give you a feel for the Pyrenees, suggesting when to go and what not to miss, and includes a full list of contents. Then comes basics, for pre-departure information and other practicalities. The guide chapters cover the Pyrenees’ regions in depth, each starting with a highlights panel, introduction and a map to help you plan your route. Author Picks The contexts section flls you in on history, wildlife, the environment and Throughout this book, we’ve used the Rough Guides books, while further colour inserts introduce Pyrenean food and drink and icon to highlight establishments our author particularly Romanesque architecture, and language gives you an extensive menu reader recommends – a perfectly sited hotel, an atmospheric café, a and enough French and Spanish to get by. special restaurant. Each has been sent a “Recommended by The book concludes with all the small print, including details of how to send in Rough Guides” display sticker. The same icon is also used to updates and corrections, and a comprehensive index. fag up book recommendations in the Contexts section. Please send us your own nominations, which our author will be happy to check out for future editions. This sixth edition published August 2007. Accommodation price codes All the hotels and guesthouses in this book have been cat- egorized according to the following price codes, refecting the price of the cheapest double room in high season. For more details see p.48. 1 under E30 4 E60–80 7 over E125 2 E30–45 5 E80–100 3 E45–60 6 E100–125 The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all the information in The Rough Guide to the Pyrenees, however, they can accept no responsibility for any loss, injury, or inconvenience sustained by any Front cover image: Parque Nacional © 4cornersimages traveller as a result of information or advice contained in the guide. Back cover image: View of San Sebastián from Mount Igueldo © Getty Right: Aneto massif with irises © Rough Guides InsideCover.indd 1 15/5/07 16:20:31 US $19.99 CAN$24.99 I S B N 978-1-84353-766-3 5 1 9 9 9 9 7 8 1 8 4 3 5 3 7 6 6 3 The Rough Guide to The Pyrenees written and researched by Marc Dubin NEW YORK • LONDON • DELHI www.roughguides.com ColourIntroPyrenees.indd 1 17/5/07 16:29:50 ColourIntroPyrenees.indd 2 17/5/07 16:29:58 Contents 3 The Val d’Aran region ........ 245 Colour section 1–24 4 Around the national parks ..327 5 The Western Pyrenees ...... 447 Introduction ............................... 5 Where to go ............................. 11 Contexts 523–570 When to go .............................. 12 Things not to miss ................... 15 History ................................... 525 Wildlife ................................... 552 Basics 25–78 The environment .................... 559 Books .................................... 564 Getting there ........................... 27 Getting around ........................ 35 Language 571–600 Tourist information and maps .. 41 Insurance ................................ 44 French.................................... 573 Health ..................................... 45 Castilian Spanish ................... 585 Accommodation ...................... 46 Mountain terminology ............ 596 Food and drink ....................... 52 Glossary................................. 597 Communications and the media .................................... 58 Travel store 601–616 Opening hours and public holidays ................................ 62 Small print & Index 617–631 Festivals .................................. 63 Crime, police and personal safety .................................... 65 Pyrenean food and Great outdoors ........................ 68 drink colour section following p.168 Travel essentials ..................... 75 Guide 79–522 Pyrenean Romanesque architecture colour 1 The Eastern Pyrenees ......... 79 section following p.392 2 Andorra and around .......... 181 3 nn Coma de Vaca mountain refuge n Cloisters, Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges ColourIntroPyrenees.indd 3 17/5/07 16:30:20 | contents | ColourIntroPyrenees.indd 4 17/5/07 16:30:23 Introduction to Pyrenees Anyone could fnd their perfect retreat in the Pyrenees, a mountain range comprising a diversity of landscapes rarely equalled in Europe. Between herb-scented Mediterranean slopes and the damper, stormier Atlantic coast lie iridescent green meadows, snow-clad peaks, canyons of sinuously sculpted rock, dense broadleaf forest, weirdly eroded limestone pinnacles and sheer, overgrown valleys that get two hours of sun daily. These mountains challenge and invite rather than intimidate. Generally rounded and crumbling, their peaks – including 3404-metre Aneto, the highest Pyre- nean summit, plus runners-up Posets and Vignemale – are attainable by any determined, properly equipped walker. Other natural wonders beckon to the averagely ft: the Valle de Ordesa, the most spectacular of many canyons, can be traversed on gentle footpaths, as can the great glaciated amphitheatre of the Cirque de Gavar- nie just north. The water-moulded canyons of the Sierra de Guara in the Aragonese foothills invite both expert and novice equipped with little more than neoprene suits. You can raft down various foaming rivers on both sides of the range, including the Noguera Pallaresa in Catalunya and the Gállego in Aragón, as well as several tamer ones on the French side. Walking the Pyrenees from end to end has become a classic endeavour. Thousands annually follow the Haute Randonnée Pyrénéenne (HRP) to either side of the watershed; the more circuitous but less demanding Grande Randonnée 10 (GR10) entirely within France; or the equally spectacular Spanish Gran Recorrido 11 (GR11). Detailed maps for the entire range show 5 numerous other, briefer itineraries, suitable for hikers at all levels. ColourIntroPyrenees.indd 5 17/5/07 16:30:27 | IntRoDUctIon | WHeRe to Go | WHen to Go Pyrenean wildlife is exceptionally rich, Fact fle despite the devastating impact of human • The Pyrenees, approximately activity on many species. Deer and wild 435km long as the crow fies boar hide in the forests; the ubiquitous and 50km broad at the widest points exceeding 1000m ele- isard (Pyrenean chamois) abounds, as vation, spans two national do shy wildcats; marmots are plentiful states – France and Spain (and audible); majestic birds of prey – while entirely incorporating patrol the skies. The capercaillie, a bird a third, Andorra. On the Spa- now extinct in the French Alps, still nish fank, Pyrenean territory makes up signifcant parts of ( just) survives in the Pyrenees, while the autonomías (autonomous the tiny desman, an aquatic mole, is regions) of Catalunya, Aragón, unknown elsewhere in western Europe, Navarra and País Vasco except the Picos de Europa. (Euskadi), which are further Traces of human habitation in the subdivided into the provinces of (from east to west) Girona, Pyrenees pre-date recorded history by Lleida, Huesca, Pamplona millennia, with artefacts found (and dis- and Gipuzkoa. In France, the played) at various caves in the Ariège, the départements of (from west Couserans and the Comminges regions. to east) Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Among the prehistoric caves around Hautes-Pyrénées, Ariège, Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales incor- Tarascon-sur-Ariège, the paintings in porate substantial tracts of the Grotte de Niaux rank as the best high mountain. open to public view worldwide. • Population density avera- ges less than ten individuals per square kilometre, and the total number of year-round inhabitants on both sides of the Pyrenees does not exceed 1.5 million – the vast majority living in the largest towns or conurba- tions of Pau, Perpignan, Bayon- ne-Anglet-Biarritz, Girona, San Sebastián, Tarbes, Huesca, Jaca, Figueres and Olot. • The main Pyrenean employers are tourism, pasto- ralism and local government. Otherwise, hydroelectric power generation, coastal fshing, light industry in the towns and timber are the only other sig- nifcant economic activities. Mining and farming are no longer practised on any signif- 6 cant scale. Corncobs drying, Aínsa ColourIntroPyrenees.indd 6 17/5/07 16:30:32 | IntRoDUctIon | WHeRe to Go | WHen to Go 7 Romanesque church, Axiat ColourIntroPyrenees.indd 7 17/5/07 16:30:36 | IntRoDUctIon | WHeRe to Go | WHen to Go Marmots Throughout the high Pyrenees you will hear, though probably not see, the marmot (marmotte in French; marmota in Castilian), a now-common dweller above the tree line that once disappeared from these mountains after being hunted for centuries for its fur. This robust rodent – reaching a length of 75cm – was reintroduced to the French Central Pyrenees from 1948 onwards, and has now spread to both sides of the range. The rather indiscriminate manner of this restocking, and its few natural enemies, has led to an explosion in marmot populations, with control measures – especially after gnawing damage was discovered to hydroelectric pipes – now being considered. The shrill alarm shriek emitted by “sentry” individuals sends colony members scurrying down their extensive tunnel system, generally dug on warm, south-facing scree slopes at 2000m – a habitat where the creature‘s fawn-grey fur makes it almost invisible. Since their rapid increase in numbers, however, colonies are now found down to the 1600-metre contour, the tunnels Congost de Mont-Rebei gorge the venue for fve months of annual hibernation. Despite their cuddly Hundreds of extraordinary Roman- appearance and anthropomorphic esque churches and monasteries con- habit of standing on two legs, stitute the Pyrenees’ architectural high- marmots can be ferce, fghting to the death in territorial disputes. lights, including such renowned examples as Saint-Michel-de-Cuixà, Serrabona, Santa Maria de Ripoll, Sant Climent de Taüll and a host of others in the Vall de Boí, Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, San Juan de la Peña and Saint-Engrâce in the Haute-Soule. So-called “Roman” bridges still linking isolated villages are even older, though not always pre-Chris- 8 tian. In the west of the range, numerous monuments attest to the thousands who ColourIntroPyrenees.indd 8 17/5/07 16:30:43 | IntRoDUctIon | WHeRe to Go | WHen to Go
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