Product Description

The Rough Guide toThe Pyrenees is the most comprehensive handbook to this glorious region, covering both sides of the range from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean. From lush meadowland, snow-clad peaks and canyons of sinuously sculpted rock to alluring resorts, the full-colour section introduces all of the regions highlights. You’ll find detailed accounts of all the sights, from the gorges of the Basque country to the Romanesque churches of Calunya. This fully updated 6th edition includes information on skiing in the mountains and brand new colour inserts on romanesque architecture and Pyrenean food. Read opinionated reviews of all the best places to eat, drink and stay at all price levels as well as practical accounts of the most popular sporting activities including skiing, river-rafting and even parapenting. The guide also takes a detailed look at the region’s history, cuisine, festivals and wildlife and comes complete with maps and plans for every area. The Rough Guide to The Pyrennees is like having a local friend plan your trip!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #40620 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 608 pages

From the Author
Rough Guide Pyrenees is indeed a general touring guide
Contrary to received opinion, the Rough Guide to the Pyrenees is indeed aimed at the mainstream tourist, though inevitably it focuses on mountain attractions. There are plenty of descriptions of easy day-walks, as well as multi-day treks. I have chosen not to provide topographic, contoured hiking maps because specialist products of this sort are easily available in France and Spain - in the front matter and "Books" sections loads of them are recommended. Also highlighted are the various opportunities for skiing, caving, river-rafting and canyoning,along with the usual Rough Guide features: a piece on wildlife, complete festival calendars for each region, a history account tailored to the mountains. For people who want a break at the nearest seaside after time in the hills, there is extensive coverage of the northern Costa Brava, French resorts in Languedoc-Roussillon, and the Basque Coast on both sides of the border, with town plans for any place of size (not usually a problem at higher altitudes). Most of the destinations covered are unique to this guide, and appear nowhere else in English. Moreover, for the upcoming edition (being researched March-July 2000, out April 2001), watch for an extra special region in Spain, well known already to French and Spanish but never before profiled in English!

About the Author
Marc Dubin is author of The Rough Guide to Cyprus and co-author of The Rough Guide to Greece, The Greek Islands and Turkey.

Excerpted from The Rough Guide to The Pyrenees by Marc Dubin. Copyright © 2001. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
WHEN AND WHERE TO GO

There’s something to do in the Pyrenees at all times of the year. Snowfall permitting, the downhill/cross-country ski season gets seriously under way in January, while spring sees high-level ski touring. With the spring thaw, rafting and canoeing become practicable, and then the long summer walking season begins in early June – also a good time for riding, cycling, and the more extreme pursuits of canyoning and parapente, the latter essentially a cross between hang-gliding and parachuting. In autumn the crowds depart and the mountain trails are left to solitary walkers not afraid of the odd snow flurry.

The optimum time to visit obviously depends on what you want to do, but if possible you should avoid the French and Spanish national summer holidays, which run from mid-July to the end of August. It’s preferable to come after this lemming stampede rather than before: spring and autumn offer equal solitude, but high passes may still be blocked until July, and in September you’ll have the freedom of all the mountains. Besides the crowds, thunderstorms cause problems in high summer: the Pyrenees are very prone to them and during July and August several storms a week can be guaranteed. If you are out on the high peaks during summer you should always aim to be well down by early afternoon, when the storms tend to break.

The weather in the Pyrenees resists generalization, as temperatures can be erratic owing to marine influences, and microclimates abound. In summer, the cooling action of the sea can give each coastal strip a temperature several degrees lower than a few miles inland, while for every 100–200m of ascent, the temperature often falls by as much as one degree Celsius. Thus a summer train-ride up from Barcelona to Núria in Catalunya might take you through a drop of more than ten degrees. Conversely, there’s the common phenomenon of temperature inversion (especially on the French slopes), when the valleys become colder than the peaks, which protrude like islands from a white sea of cloud. The Bareges valley, for example, has particularly idiosyncratic weather, where a warm May can be followed by snowstorms in June.

If you’ve only got two weeks at your disposal, the Pyrenees are too vast to tour in their entirety, but in places public transport is good enough to explore a region roughly corresponding to one of the chapters in this book. The rail networks will get you within striking distance of the most interesting areas, and buses are often available to take you deeper into the mountains. A circuit of the Eastern Pyrenees, for example, could begin at Perpignan, continue south by train along the Mediterranean coast, move west by road through the verdant Garrotxa to the Ripollès valleys; then north by rail to the sunny plain of the Cerdanya/Cerdagne, and finally return to Perpignan by another train through the dramatic Têt valley. Circular itineraries such as this can be constructed in many other parts of the range – around Andorra or in the Basque country, for example – and even isolated, underpopulated zones such as the central Maladeta and Posets massifs lend themselves to loops on foot from trailhead villages served by buses. With a car or bicycle, you could probably see the best of two consecutive chapters in two to three weeks.

If you want to concentrate on one area, the Ariege will suit most tastes with its fabulous scenery, cave art, ruined castles and almost every form of outdoor activity. Over the border in Catalunya, the Parc Nacional de Aiguestortes i Sant Maurici, easily accessible from the Val d’Aran, makes an excellent introduction to the glacial glories of the higher peaks. Gavarnie, Bareges or Cauterets in France, and Torla or Bielsa in Spain, are comfortable gateways for the best of the French Parc National des Pyrenees and the Spanish Parque Nacional de Ordesa y Monte Perdido, the great, contiguous national parks in the heart of the range. For walks and climbs on the highest summits further east, make the all-purpose resorts of Benasque or Bagnères-de-Luchon your bases, while the westernmost high peaks – before the range dips below 2500m elevation – can also be easily explored from developed villages such as Lescun or Sallent de Gallego. During winter, most of these settlements are conveniently close to many of the best ski resorts, which include Candanchu-Astún, Barèges-La Mongie, Piau-Engaly, Peyragudes, Baqueira-Beret and Boi-Taüll, many of them the equal of the better-known winter sports centres in commercialized Andorra.

Towards the west end of the range, Pau is the largest and most cosmopolitan city of the Pyrenees, on a main transport route to Jaca, historic county town of the Aragonese mountains. They are the most logical and congenial gateways to the surreal karst country extending between the French Vallee d’Aspe and the Spanish valleys of Echo and Anso. Southeast of Jaca, beyond the sleepy provincial capital of Huesca, the Sierra de Guara is available for visits most of the year owing to lower altitude.

Inland from the surf-pounded Atlantic coast, with its elegant resorts of San Sebastian and Biarritz, the seductively green horizons and sumptuous domestic architecture of the Basque country beckon, with graceful Bayonne and atmospheric Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port as focuses. The Mediterranean beaches are more varied and – at least at the picturesque port-resorts of Collioure or Cadaques – more beautiful, and the climate reliably sunny. From here there are also opportunites for forays inland to the mysterious, volcanic Garrotxa basin in Catalunya or to the gorge-slashed foothills of the Canigou massif in Roussillon. Whichever part of the range you decide to visit, take the opportunity to sample both sides of the border if at all possible – the north-to-south change of landscape, climate and culture is one of the delights of the Pyrenees.

Customer Reviews

Very useful for Pyrenees virgins planning a trek
I'm planning to walk over the Pyrenees from Catalonia to the Midi this summer, and was looking for a good resource to give me a well-informed idea of possible starting points, finishes, distances and the natural obstacles involved.

Although the Rough Guide was slagged off somewhat by previous reviewers for being a) too big to be properly useful as a hiking guide, and b) too useful specifically for hikers (there's no pleasing some people!), I'm glad to say that it's perfect for me - I'm not going to take it on the trip, but I'll be siphoning every little bit of information from it while planning.

And there's a lot of information. For instance, all the telephone numbers for refuges are there - indispensable if you're planning to use them, because you have to book ahead of time.

The guide is divided into chapters according to the valleys specific region of the Pyrenees - this allows you to get straight to only those parts which you're going to walk or visit. And like all Rough Guides, the general knowledge (history, wildlife, etc.) sections really add some colour to the subject.

In summary, I am definitely going to take the Trailblazer "Trekking in the Pyrenees" book with me - it's lighter, smaller, more specific and seems comprehensive - but this Rough Guide was an invaluable starting point.

Designed more for walkers than general tourists
A book of this scope is needed and useful, but the format is not especially easy to use, and seems to be aimed more at hikers. Yet if hiking, why not get the more easily visual 'Trekking in the Pyrenees' published by Trailblazer. The maps of towns like Jaca and Pamplona are useful.

A hefty book for distance walkers
Rough Guides are an essential part of any travellers kit. This one is quite different from the usual tourist information found in other Rough Guides. Aimed at distance and trek walking rather than the country stroll. Not much in the way of those little details found in other editions that make the contents so interesting and informative. Shame this is not pointed out before purchasing.