Hiking in the Pyrenees

Lourdes
 Arriving to Lourdes at 16:30 by train from Bayonne on July 19 2018, we soon walked out to the nearby hotel. Lourdes is a small town in southern France with the population of 15,000, but a lot of people, more than 6M pilgrims, coming here every year from all over the world, because this is the sacred place for Catholics. So many that the town is ranked as No.2 after Paris in terms of the number of hotels per square meter.

          

 In planning this trip in Japan, at first I didn’t like to stay in such a busy town. So I looked for a more cozy B & B style inn in a remote village. But what I found out was that they were all inconveniently located for me to go to a day trip hiking in the various parts of the Pyrenees. The problem was the lack of local buses connecting one village to another. As I would have no car available here, I decided to choose Lourdes as a base for daily excursions. From Lourdes there is at least one local bus per day which takes me to one destination.

Cirque de Gavarnie
 My first pick for the hikes in the Pyrenees was Cirque de Gavarnie in the Pyrénées National Park, which was registered in the lists of UNESCO World Heritage Site and Victor Hugo once described as “an impossibly and extraordinary object, a Colosseum of nature”. 

 On the next day, we got on the Ligne41 local bus departing from the Lourdes station stop at 9 am for Gavarnie. There was only one direct bus in a day linking to that small village in the Pyrenees close to the border with Spain. I was a little bit surprised to see so few passengers on the bus at the time of summer holidays started. In Japan, we would see a lot more walking lovers. 
  In less than 2 hours, we reached Gavarnie (1,365 m) and entered into the tourist office just in front of the bus stop. 

      

 From here we walked into the village, following the path along the mountain stream with a gentle summer breeze touching pleasantly our faces. Beside us a little girl was passing by with her back straightened on a pony led by her father.     

     

 The trail ascended gradually with the image of Cirque de Gavarnie making its appearance ahead of us a little by little. It was a really easy and comfortable walking. 


         

  In less than two hours, we were at the foot of the great rocky cliffs standing perpendicularly with the height of 1,500 m and the width of around 3,000 m at the top. We felt just like surrounded by an ancient amphitheatre.The plateau where a summer bar restaurant called Hotellerie du Cirque sat was 1,570 m high above the sea level, which meant that the peaks seen on top of the cliffs exceeded 3,000 m high.  There are a number of melting water falls, of which the largest is Gavarnie Falls, the 2nd highest waterfall in Europe with the height of 422 meters. It is said that the cirque was formed by repeated cycles of glacial scraping over millions of years.

       

 After taking a light lunch with refreshing beer at the Hotellerie du Cirque, we descended to the Compostelle Hotel in Gavarnie village to stay for one night. In front of the hotel, there was a sign post with a light on the top, which showed that this was the inn for pilgrims heading for Santiago des Compostella as well as for the wanderers from distant Japan.
   

Lac de Gaube
 Lac de Gaube is the emerald green mountain lake situated at the height of 1725 m on the foot of Mt. Le Vignemale (3298m) . The hike from the bus stop at the Pont d'Espagne to the lake is one of the most popular hiking course in the Pyrenees. On July 22, we departed Lourdes on a bus at 8:10 am for the hike to this mysterious lake. By the way, the lake' name 'Gaube' is said to mean "lake" in Gascon language, so we sere going to the lake lake. 
In about 50 minutes we arrived in Cauterets and changed here to a shuttle bus for the Pont d'Espagne. 

Cascade du Pont D'espagne

Pont d'Espagne

 The hike is very relaxing and comfortable, enjoying the view of the distant mountain ranges in the Pyrenees ahead of us. 

     

Within two hours from the bus stop, we reached Lac de Gaube.
This is the Paradise! So I cried in my mind with the color of the emerald green lake quietly reflecting the image of the surrounded 3000m peaks with lingering snow. By the lake, there stood a summer bar and restaurant called Hotellerie du Lac de Gaube, where I toasted the Pyrenees with my friend.   

       

 In return, we took another route leading to the rope way top station. On the way we were welcomed by the Alpine wild flowers. At the station, while we were taking a rest before getting on an aerial rope way, we chatted with three lively women from Poland and Ukraine. They were talkative and friendly when they knew that we came from Japan. A younger lady from Ukraine said that she had an experience to work in Toyota's factory as a quality engineer and the other senior lady praised her Nissan's sedan. I thought that Japanese manufactures would get along better with Eastern Europe people if they would plan to construct factories in Europe. 

       

 On the lift down to the parking, we heard someone on an ascending lift just in the opposite direction suddenly shouting something toward us. We were puzzled, but my friend recognized him as a husband of the Spanish family whom we met in the Compostelle Hotel in Gavarnie village. They remembered us, two senior strange travellers from distant Japan. We were excited to greet each other by waving our hands.