The Rough Guide to The Pyrenees - Softcover

Anyone could find their perfect retreat in the Pyrenees, a range that encompasses in its four-hundred-kilometre length a diversity of landscapes rarely equalled in Europe. Between the balmy beaches of the Mediterranean and the more turbulent Atlantic coast lie regions of lush meadowland, peaks permanently clad in ice, sun-beaten canyons of sinuously sculpted rock, swathes of dense broadleaf forest, weirdly eroded limestone pinnacles and valleys so sheer and overgrown that scarcely a ray of light penetrates them.

These mountains challenge and invite rather than intimidate. Generally rounded and crumbling, most of their peaks are attainable even to people with little experience of such terrain. Aneto, at 3404 metres the highest summit of the Pyrenees, stands within reach of any determined and properly equipped walker, as do all the next ranking peaks – Posets, Monte Perdido and Vignemale. Other natural wonders of the range are also available to the averagely fit. The Valle de Ordesa, the most spectacular of many canyons, can be traversed on nearly level footpaths, as can the great glaciated amphitheatre of the Cirque de Gavarnie, just to the north. The stalactite-draped cavern of Lombrives is the largest cave in western Europe to which there’s unrestricted public access, while a visit to the Sala de la Verna, the largest chamber in one of the world’s deepest cave systems – the Gouffre Pierre-Saint-Martin – requires no great physical effort. If you join an organized group, there are any number of lively rivers to raft down on both sides of the range, including the Noguera Pallaresa in Catalunya and the Gállego in Aragon, as well as several tamer ones on the French side. Canyoners of all ability levels are similarly well catered to in the "pre-Pyrenean" Sierra de Guara, also in Spanish Aragon.

Walking the entire range from end to end has become a classic endeavour, and thousands of people have followed the Haute Randonnee Pyreneenne (HRP) just to either side of the watershed, or the more circuitous, but less demanding, Grande Randonnee 10 (GR10) entirely within France. These long-established footpaths were supplemented during the 1980s by the equally spectacular Spanish Gran Recorrido 11 (GR11); maps for every part of the Pyrenees show numerous other, briefer itineraries, suitable for hikers at all levels.

The wildlife of the Pyrenees is exceptionally rich, despite the devastating impact of human activity on many of its most engaging species. Populations of deer and wild boar hide in the forests, and in certain dense woodlands a dwindling number of brown bear still manage to survive despite the depredations of hunters. In contrast, the ubiquitous isard – or Pyrenean chamois – is on the increase, as are shy wildcats; marmots are plentiful (and audible); while majestic birds of prey circle in the skies. The capercaillie, a game bird now extinct in the French Alps, still thrives in the Pyrenees, and the tiny desman, a sort of aquatic mole, is unknown anywhere else in western Europe, except the Picos de Europa.

Traces of human habitation in the Pyrenees predate recorded history by thousands of years, with artefacts found (and often displayed) at a half-dozen caves in the Ariege, the Couserans and the Comminges regions. The prehistoric painted caves around Tarascon-sur-Ariege are rivalled only by those of the Dordogne and the Spanish province of Cantabria, with the paintings in the Grotte de Niaux rated as the best examples open to public view anywhere in the world.

Architectural highlights of the Pyrenees are its extraordinary Romanesque churches and monasteries, of which there are literally hundreds, including such renowned examples as Saint-Martin-du-Canigou, Serrabone, Santa Maria de Ripoll, Sant Climent de Taull and a host of others in the Vall de Boi, Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, Saint-Lizier, San Juan de la Pena, and Saint-Engrace in the Haute-Soule. So-called "Roman" bridges still linking isolated villages are even older, though not necessarily pre-Christian. Towards the western half of the range, numerous monuments bear testimony to the thousands of pilgrims who during the Middle Ages followed the pilgrimage trail to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia via the fabled Puerto de Ibañeta near Roncesvalles, or the nearby Col du Somport. At the eastern end, from the Mediterranean to the Ariege, the strength of the heretical Cathar religion is reflected in many immensely evocative ruined castles, notably the crag-top citadel of Montsegur, site of the faith’s effective extinction.

The people of the Pyrenees are as disparate as the landscape. The east and west ends of the range are the respective homelands of the Catalans and the Basques, each with a tenaciously preserved cultural vitality, as embodied in the sombre sardana, the Catalan communal dance, or the lightning-quick and potentially lethal Basque game of pelota/pelote. As you traverse the Pyrenees you’ll certainly hear Catalan, Aranese, Aragonese and Euskera (the Basque tongue), not to mention a few others – notably Occitan – not officially accorded the status of a distinct language. For centuries before the final unifications of France and Spain, every valley effectively constituted a mini-republic with its own argot and traditions, jealously guarding customary privileges against encroachment from distant central governments, and defying them further with a thriving trade in smuggling. Remoteness and neglect long made the mountains a refuge for political as well as religious dissidents, most recently during the Spanish Civil War and World War II when thousands of refugees took advantage of the shepherds’ and smugglers’ knowledge to evade capture. After 1968, hundreds of disillusioned French protesters and "alternative" types again took up residence in the back country, swelling the traditional local vote for the political Left – and adopting the long-standing local habit of self-sufficiency. Indeed the Pyreneans’ historical disregard for the often-altered boundaries between France and Spain has been vindicated and accentuated by the post-1993 European single market, as old border posts lie abandoned and a strong regional identity bridging the watershed seems set to reassert itself.

After decades of playing second fiddle to the Alps, the Pyrenees have finally come into their own as a travellers’ destination. Infrastructure and amenities improve by the year, as exemplified by increasing numbers of quality lodgings (especially on the Spanish side), ever-multiplying adventure-sport outfitters and a plethora of no-frills airlines offering service into hitherto sleepy regional airports. It has never been easier to visit these mountains.