Part 9

What I would particularly impress upon anyone going into the Pyrenees is this, that such a method of counting is exceedingly accurate, and is moreover the only accurate method. Nothing is more fatal to a civilized man of the plains than to take his little measuring stick and measure upon the map by the scale the distance between two points, saying, “It will take me so many hours.” There was a Basque at Ste. Engrace who very well expressed to me the contempt which mountaineers have for that method of the plains. A deputy of the French Parliament had stopped in his inn, had thus measured the distance from the village to the pass, and would not believe that it could take three hours. It always takes exactly three hours. I have done it in four by careful dawdling, and the dawdling, when I came to reckon it up, had taken exactly one hour out of the four. Now, measured upon the map, that distance, as the crow flies, is precisely three miles, but it takes three hours none the less. You will not do it in less, and what is odder, you can hardly do it in more, for if you deliberately go too slowly, you are done for in no time, and if you halt, you will find that your halt fits in exactly to make the walking time three hours. Similarly, over the Pourtalet, from the last Spanish hamlet to the first French one, is six hours; part of the way you may choose between a good road and a mule track, but whichever you choose it is six hours; and there is nothing more astonishing in Pyrenean travel than the accuracy of this rough method. As I said just now, you must heed it blindly; it is by far your best guide.

The use of maps has one last thing to be said about it, which applies particularly to the Schrader map and to the 1/100,000, and this is that where you think you see a short cut, and the map gives you no track, there the short cut is to be avoided. I say it applies particularly to the Schrader and 1/100,000, because these two maps are so particular in detail that you think their information must be enough without the further aid of a path. Moreover, the path sometimes takes such apparently needless turns that you are for escaping it by an easier cut.

You will never succeed. You may indeed succeed in a bit of exceptionally hard climbing, you may not lose your life, but you will most certainly wish that you had never attempted the unmarked crossing of the ridge you have attacked. It is obvious that the exception to this doctrine would be found in a piece of genuine experiment. If you say to yourself for instance, “I can get over the shoulder of the Pic d’Anie into the valley of the rivulet beyond, which has no name, but which runs into the Tarn of Uterdineta,” you will probably do it, but it will not be a short cut from the Val d’Aspe into the valley of Isaba, though it is the shortest way. These temptations for cutting across the hills come very often in one’s first experiments in the Pyrenees: they get less frequent as one knows more of them. These mountains are full of vengeance, and hate to be disturbed.

NOTE.—A convenient map for viewing the whole range is the 1/400,000 which is sold by Messrs. Sifton & Praed, mounted in two sheets, and in a case. It is especially of use in showing a large belt of the Spanish side. Motorists in particular should see it.

IV

THE ROAD SYSTEM OF THE PYRENEES

[Illustration]

There are two kinds of platforms for travel in the Pyrenees—mule tracks and great, highly engineered, modern roads. No others exist. When, therefore, one is describing travel in the Pyrenees, one must separately describe the opportunities of wheeled travel open to all vehicles, however elaborate, and of travel on foot or with a mule. As the last will take up the greater part of my space, I will speak of wheeled travel first.

To understand what are the opportunities of this, one may take as one’s standard the roads which can be traversed by a motor car. Those passages which a motor car cannot use cannot be used by a bicycle or a carriage, for the roads of the Pyrenees are, as I have said, either very good broad roads, well graded, and with a hard surface, or they do not exist; the change is always abrupt throughout the chain from an excellent highway, carefully engineered, to a mule track.

The scheme of Pyrenean roads, as it exists now, is, briefly, _first_: a couple of great lateral roads on the French side, which may be called the upper and the lower road; _next_, four roads traversing the chain (six if you count the roads along the sea-coast at either end, which I omit—the one goes by St. Jean de Luz, the other by the Pass of Lacleuse or La Perthuis); _thirdly_, a series of roads, numerous on the French side, rare on the Spanish, which penetrate the valleys but do not cross the chain, and end at a greater or less distance from the watershed.

The main lateral road from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, along the base of the Pyrenees, links up all the towns upon the plains; it joins Bayonne to Pau, Pau to Tarbes, Tarbes to St. Gaudens, and so on through St. Girons, Foix, and Quillan to Perpignan: this may be called _the Lower Road_. The upper road has been but recently completed. It is made up of sections, some of which are old highways, some links quite newly built, and the characteristic of the whole is that it skirts as nearly as possible the crest of the main chain, crossing at some places very high passes over the lateral ridges, and everywhere keeping right up against the high summits of the range. The whole line runs from Perpignan over the Col de la Perche up the Val Carol and over the Puymorens to Ax, Tarascon, and St. Girons. At St. Girons, it is compelled by the conformation of the country to touch the lower road, but it leaves it at once to pass from Fronsac to Luchon; thence through Arreau, Luz, Argelès, Laruns, Oloron, and Mauléon—all the high mountain towns—to St. Jean Pied-de-Port, and thence back again to Bayonne.

The four roads over the ridge into Spain lie all of them on the western side of the hills. They are, first, the road through the Baztan valley, which connects Bayonne with Pamplona; secondly, the Roman road over Roncesvalles, 12 or 15 miles to the east of this, which used to be the high road between Bayonne and Pamplona before the Baztan road was built, and which was during all history the westernmost road of invasion and communication between Gaul and Spain; thirdly, the road which goes over the Somport, which was also a Roman road and the chief one, uniting Saragossa with the French plains; fourthly, a road parallel to this and not 10 miles east of it, running over the Pourtalet Pass and joining the Saragossa road lower down. No other roads cross the range from France into Spain until one reaches the Mediterranean, and all these four lie within the first westernmost third of the Pyrenees.

It would be quite easy to open other roads which should unite the last of the Spanish highways with the first of the French, notably over the easy pass of Bonaigo, where 20 miles of work would be enough, and through the Cerdagne, where there are no engineering difficulties. One such road is now in process of completion between Esterri and St. Girons over the pass of Salau. Another, which was begun from the valley of the Ariège into Andorra, was abruptly stopped, and it will probably never be completed. There are some half-dozen other places, where a road could cross and where the French are building their side of it: but the Spaniards are reluctant to meet them.

Of the roads of the third kind, roads running up the valleys but not attempting to cross the mountains, one may say that on the French side every valley has one or more good roads, the one drawback to the use of which in a motor is that you are compelled, unless you can take a cross road from one high valley to another high valley, to go back by the way you came into the plain.

Not only has every valley its highway leading to the very foot of the main range, but often the bifurcations of the valley will have roads as well. Thus along the valley of the Nive you can go in a motor not only to St. Jean Pied-de-Port, but also right up the eastern valley to a country-side called the “Baigorry” as far as Urepel; along the next Basque valley to the east, you can go from Mauléon in the plains right up into the hills as far as Larrau, but you cannot go to Ste. Engrace, where the valley splits, because the track thither, though a good one, will not take wheels. You can go up the branch valley from Oloron as high as Aritte, and the main road up the Val d’Aspe (which is that leading to Jaca by the old Roman way), has lateral branches, one taking you to Lourdios, the other across the foot hills to Arudy and the Val d’Ossau. The valley of Lourdes has a road which, with the exception of the roads over the passes, goes nearest to the main watershed. I mean the road to Gavarnie; and the Val d’Aure, which comes next to the westward, has a road going as far as Aragnonette, almost as close to the last cliffs as Gavarnie is; and there is an embranchment to the east which takes one to the very foot at the Hôpital of Rivanagon in one of the loneliest parts of the hills. The road to Bagnères de Luchon is carried some miles beyond that town, as far as the Hospitalet, which stands at the foot of the pass into Spain. The road to Viella in the Val d’Oran goes on up to within a mile or two of the pass of Bonaigo. A road from St. Girons takes one up the valley of the Lez as far as Sentein, which, like Gavarnie, lies right under the main chain, while the road from the same town up the main valley of the Sallent goes up to the watershed itself, and is being constructed to cross it, and to afford (over the pass of Salau) one more badly needed passage into Spain. The valley of the Ariège has a road all along it, almost to the sources of that river. It is continued through the Cerdagne and down the valley of the Tet into the Roussillon.

There is not a main valley on the French side of the Pyrenees which has not its great carriage road, and most of the lateral valleys have now the same kind of communications. The journey up them is nearly always of the same kind, save the few which are prolonged to carry over the watershed into Spain. There is the succession of two or three enclosed plains or jasses after one has left the plains, the sharp pitch up to one flat, and then another, through short but steep rocky gorges, till we reach the little terminal mountain village, sometimes not more than a group of three or four buildings, lying under the last escarpment, and in sight of the frontier ridge above it. Of this terminal sort was Urdos until Napoleon III pushed the road out beyond it into Spain; Gabas, until the Republic did the same with the road there; and of this sort still an old Hospitalet, Sentein in the Val d’Aure, and though it is in a state of transition, for the road is now being pushed beyond it, of this sort is Gavarnie. Little places almost as old as our race, with no history and no national memories, but with immemorial traditions, rooted as deep as the mountains, were brought into the life of our time by that new activity of the French, which is to many foreigners so hateful, to many others so marvellous.

[Illustration: PLAN L.]

On the Spanish side there are no roads of this kind penetrating the valleys except the incomplete road to Isaba from Pamplona by way of the Val d’Anso, and the short stretch from Sandinies to Panticosa.

A road is being made up the Val d’Anéu, but it is not yet finished, and a road goes just so far up the broad Segre valley as Seu d’Urgel.

All the other valleys have mule tracks alone.

The general scheme of existing roads in the Pyrenees is roughly as upon the map on previous page, where it will be seen that much the greater length of the chain is impassable to a wheeled vehicle.

Motoring sets a standard for every other form of wheeled traffic, I will therefore first speak of this kind of travel. The best road to take with a motor, if one wishes to obtain a general idea of the Pyrenees, is the Lower Road (by Tarbes and Foix) from Bayonne to Perpignan; one may then come back again from Perpignan to Bayonne by the upper road, many parts of which are of very recent construction and which goes right through the highest part of the chain across the main lateral valleys of the Pyrenees. Such a round—about 500 miles altogether—gives one from far and from near the whole of the French Pyrenees: from the first one sees the chain as a whole before one: by the second one mixes with its deepest valleys.

The first day’s run from Bayonne had best end at Tarbes; it is a town central with regard to the chain, and it is also a very pleasant place to stop at under any conditions; not cosmopolitan like Pau, and not in a hole and corner like Foix.

The lower road from Bayonne to Tarbes runs through Orthez, Puyoo, and Pau, and if one starts early, Pau is a good halting-place for the middle of the day. This part of the road is, during the whole of its length or nearly the whole of it, a rolling road of the plains with no striking points of view save in where it tops a slight rise. It first follows but runs above and north of the valley of the Adour below it, next descends after the first 20 miles or so to cross the Adour, and so comes to Peyrehorade, the first town (and railway station) upon its course. During all this first part of the run one has sight after sight of the range which stretches out eastward before one to the south rising higher as it goes; and one sees at first before one upon the horizon, later abreast of one and due south, the pyramid of the Pic d’Anie, which is the first of the high peaks.

From Peyrehorade to Pau, between 40 and 50 miles, the road goes through Orthez along the valley of the Gave de Pau, for the most part following the river bank and allowing but few sights of the range; but at Pau itself it rises on to the high plateau of the town whence the most famous general view of the Pyrenees is spread before one.

From Pau there are two roads to Tarbes; for curiosity and for general travel it is the road round by Lourdes which is generally taken, and that is during the whole of its length a lowland road though it runs among the foot hills; but the better road on such a drive as I am describing is the direct northern road, which, after it has climbed on to the plateau of Vignan, goes up and down steep small ravines until it comes down again upon the main valley of the Adour and the plain of Tarbes.

There are on this road two points, one just after one leaves the railway line, not quite half-way to Tarbes on the climb up to Vignan, the other just before the loop and descent above Ibos, which afford fine views of the range to the south, and one begins to gather one’s general impression of these mountains, which, more than any other range, present an appearance of simplicity and the united effect of a barrier. Tarbes, less than 30 miles from Pau, may seem a short run for one day from Bayonne, but it breaks the journey exactly and conveniently.

After Tarbes (where the hotel for you is the Hotel Des Ambassadeurs) the road goes through much broken country, passing by Tournay up on the high plateau of Lannemezan to Montréjeau. It is a road full of short hills, but it is necessary to take this section in order to go eastward from Montréjeau and to proceed through St. Gaudens, taking an elbow by St. Martary and so down to St. Girons.

After St. Girons one follows the new and excellent road which runs along the valley side by side with the new railway to Foix. From Foix to Nalzen your way is to go along the main road from Foix up the Ariège Valley for some 4 miles and then turn to the left, leaving the railway and making due east. From Nalzen continue to Lavenalet; there take the right-hand road to Belesta and Belcaire; thence, when you have crossed the plateau, a very winding road takes you down hundreds of feet, on to Quillan. After Quillan you have a few miles through the very little known and wonderful gorges of Pierre Lys to St. Martin, through which gorges the railway accompanies you. Do not follow it round by Axat, but cut across by the road which goes eastward to La Pradelle. This road takes you across a low pass to the watershed of the Mediterranean. From La Pradelle to Perpignan the road is a perfectly clear one through St. Paul and Estagel. It is a straight, good road, following the valley all the way, save the last stretch, which runs across the plains between the river Agly and the Tet.

This second day will of course be far longer than the first; it is nearer 200 miles than 120. If you would break it, however, break it rather after the short run to St. Girons, than at Foix, for though Foix be nearly the half-way house, yet the accommodation is better at St. Girons, and so is the cooking.

A two days’ run of this kind from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, following such a route, gives you the whole distant range in one general appearance, and gives it you better than you will have along any other line with which I am acquainted.

The way back by the upper road from east to west through the Pyrenees is a piece of travel quite peculiar to these mountains; nowhere else in Europe is there a lateral road driven right across the buttresses or supports of a main range. The Pyrenees possess such a road in their highest part. What the French have done here is as though the Italians had driven a road from the sources of the Dora Baltea right under Mont Rosa, and the Matterhorn to Lake Maggiore, or as though the Swiss had driven one from Faido and Fusia right over into the valley of Domo d’Ossola. From Tarascon in the valley of the Ariège to Laruns in the Val d’Ossau—that is, over all the central part of the chain and for just over half its length—a mountain road goes right up against the main heights (only once coming near the lowlands at St. Girons), crossing the high, perilous passes which lie between the upper valleys. By taking advantage of this new piece of engineering you can return from Perpignan to Bayonne through the midst of those hills which the road just described from Bayonne to Perpignan showed you in a distant general view: when you have so returned you will have seen the heart, the French Pyrenees.

I will now describe such a return journey by the upper road. From Perpignan you will do well to run the first day to Ax. The road is the great road from the Roussillon into France. You go up the valley of the Tet (which is the main river of the Roussillon) through Prades with the Canigou first right in front of you, and at last rising steeply to your left. You continue through Prades up the gorges and tortuous zigzags of the Upper River until you come to the head of the pass at Mont Louis: there the broad and easy valley of the Cerdagne opens to the south, sloping gently before you. The road runs down, almost as in a plain, to Bourg Madame, where you must turn to the right up the Val Carol to Porté. The pass above Porté (called the “Puymorens”) though long, is of an easy gradient, and once over it you run down all the 18 miles to Ax, following the valley of the Ariège.

Ax is, of course, an early stopping-place. The whole distance from Perpignan is under 140 miles, but Ax is so much more comfortable than Tarascon that it is better to make one’s halt there.

Next day go down the valley as far as Tarascon and there take the mountain road off to the left; it is not a national[1] road but it has a perfectly good surface in spite of a considerable climb. One little col comes almost immediately at Bedeillac, after that you climb steadily up the valley to the Col-du-Port (which is about 4000 feet high) then down the mountain side to Massat, which lies on the western side of the pass and about 2000 feet below it. Thence it is an ordinary valley road until you come to St. Girons again.

[1] The French metalled roads are of three main kinds, supported by the State, the County and the Parish respectively. Of these the first and most important are called “National Road.”

From St. Girons you continue this progress parallel to the watershed and right among the high peaks, by taking the cross road from St. Girons to the valley of the Garonne. Just before the railway station at St. Girons turn sharp to your left, taking the road which goes up the left bank of the Lez. At this starting point you are not more than 1300 or 1400 feet above the sea; at Audressein (300 feet up) turn to the right, cross the river, and begin to climb the upper valley until you reach the col of Portet-d’Aspet at about 3400 feet, that is, some 2000 feet above St. Girons, and between 15 and 20 miles from that town. From this col the road descends rapidly down the valley of the river Ger, falling in 5 miles 1500 or 1600 feet. At the end of the 5 miles you take a road that goes sharp off to the left before reaching the village of Sengouagnet, this road going off to the left crosses a low watershed, makes, at the end of another 5 miles, a great loop round the forest of Moncaup (the church of which village you leave to the left just before making the turn), and comes down into the great open plain into which the valley of the Garonne here enlarges. It is one of the finest enclosed plains in the Pyrenees, and to come down upon it by this road is perhaps the best way to approach it.