A traveller from England, on considering his approach to the Pyrenees, must first appreciate the road heads or starting-places whence his travels to the Pyrenees may be made, and it is convenient to regard that one to which access can be had by rail. These points are eleven in number—St. Jean Pied-de-Port, Mauléon, Oloron, Laruns, Argelès, Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Arreau, Bagnères-de-Luchon, St. Girons, Foix, and Villefranche, which last is the highest point to which the rail will take one from Perpignan.
One can get nearer the main range by light railways in certain places. Thus from Mauléon a steam tramway will take one some miles nearer the hills, to Tardets. From Lourdes the train goes up the valley several miles, and light railways go to Cauterets and Luz, and from Foix there is a considerable reach of rail, as far as Ax-les-Thermes, all up the valley of the Ariège, from which lateral valleys on every side enter the high mountains. Nevertheless, if one knows how to approach these eleven stations, and something of the hours of arriving at them, the slight extensions in the three cases named can easily be looked up, and there is no need to burden these pages with them.
Of these eleven, the first four, St. Jean Pied-de-Port, Mauléon, Oloron, and Laruns, belong to the western section of the range, and are approached from Bordeaux. Another four, Arreau, Bagnères-de-Luchon, St. Girons, and Foix belong to the central and eastern section of the range, and are approached by way of Toulouse, while the two intermediate ones, Lourdes (and its extension up the valley) and Bagnères-de-Bigorre, may, according to the convenience of trains, be approached with equal facility from either direction.
There remains Villefranche, the chief station under the Canigou, and the centre for the extreme eastern end of the range. The approach to this short and distant part of the Pyrenees is through Perpignan.
By whichever road one approaches the Pyrenees, and from whatever town at their base one proposes to make the ascent of them, one leaves Paris by the Orleans line, choosing for preference the great new station on the Quai-d’Orsay, though if one is driving across Paris with no time to spare, it is better to catch the train at the Austerlitz station a mile or two further down the line where all the expresses stop, as the departure from that station is ten minutes later than from the Quai-d’Orsay. But the Austerlitz station is old-fashioned; all the conveniences of travel are gathered at the more recent terminus, and if one has any time to spare it is always from the Quai-d’Orsay that one should start.
Arrived whether at Bordeaux or at Toulouse, one changes from the Orleans system to the Midi. This is not an absolutely accurate way of putting it, because, as a fact, the Orleans only enjoys running powers to Toulouse, along the main express line, but this is roughly the best way of putting it to make the reader understand the way in which the systems join.
With these connexions, the first journey is made to Bordeaux, to Toulouse (or, in the exceptional case of the extreme east end of the Pyrenees, to Perpignan), and the journey forward from each of these towns is calculated upon another time table, and is often taken on a different train.
To reach St. Jean, one goes on from Bordeaux to Bayonne and changes there. To reach Mauléon, one goes on from Bordeaux to Puyoo and changes there; to reach Oloron or Laruns, one goes on from Bordeaux to Pau and changes there.
Roughly speaking, those who want to take the journey easily, without night travel, will find it necessary to sleep in Paris, to sleep again at Bordeaux (or somewhere further down the line, as at Bayonne or at Pau) and only on the third day to proceed to the towns from which they will begin to climb, whether that town be St. Jean, Mauléon, Oloron, or Laruns. For this purpose they must take the morning train which leaves Paris (Quai-d’Orsay) at an hour which changes but approximates eight to half-past, and gets to Bordeaux well before dinner. It is then possible to go on the same evening to Bayonne, and, if one goes first class, to get on the same night also to Puyoo or to Pau, but in all cases arrival at the foot of the mountains will not be possible until the next morning.
Those who are content to suffer night travel will find an excellent and convenient train leaving Paris in the evening, reaching Bordeaux in the early morning, and putting them at any one of the mountain towns at, or a little after, noon. Thus, a person leaving London upon Saturday morning, will, if he travels only by day, reach any one of the western approaches to the Pyrenees on the mid-day of Monday, but if he will consent to a journey by night, he will save exactly twenty-four hours and arrive at noon (or in the early afternoon) of Sunday. The gain of twenty-four hours, by an apparent sacrifice of only twelve, is due to the nature of the connexions between the small mountain lines and the main lines. His return tickets, going in the cheapest manner, second class from London to the mountains and back will vary according to the mountain town chosen, from a little under £10 to £12, of which the French second class return fare from Paris is about or a little over £4 and the rest second return London to Paris and incidental expenses.
The approach to the intermediary towns of Lourdes and Bagnères-de-Bigorre, is of the same sort and is usually better done through Bordeaux than through Toulouse, but one gets in a little later. Unless one takes the early night train from Paris just after eight one does not reach Lourdes until the late afternoon, nor Bagnères-de-Bigorre until night.
The approach through Toulouse involves a longer train journey, and is made both by a night and a day train, as in the case of Bordeaux, and from the same station as I have said above. You can lunch on the day train, but you cannot dine upon it. Sleeping at Toulouse, one goes on next day by a morning train, starting a little after nine, and going through Tarbes, will get to Lourdes at about half-past one, or to Bagnères-de-Bigorre a few minutes earlier. Similarly, starting from Toulouse by the same morning train, one can get to Bagnères-de-Luchon just after noon, or to St. Girons at a little before one. It will be seen that these arrivals towards the centre of the chain are much at the same time as by the western approaches through Bordeaux. One gets in towards the middle of the third day in either case.
Moreover, going through Toulouse resembles the journey through Bordeaux; if one undertakes to travel by night, one saves time in much the same manner, save that the night train is earlier. One must leave Paris about half-past eight in the evening, reach Toulouse at much the same hour the next morning, and one will find oneself at the foot of the Pyrenees about mid-day of the day after leaving London, changing at Toulouse for the morning train to Lourdes, Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Luchon, St. Girons or Foix, respectively. There is, however, an exception to this apparently general rule that the shortest journey to the Pyrenees, even if one travels by night, must take well over the twenty-four hours.
As to the approach from Perpignan, this is useful for that little corner of the range which overlooks the Roussillon which is less than one-tenth of the total length. Only one important height is to be found here, the Canigou. The railway journey is very long. If one goes by day, it is imperative that one should break it somewhere. It would be more accurate to say that one can make it by day only if one breaks it somewhere, and if one makes it by night, one must leave Paris in the evening in order to get to Perpignan for lunch, or at half-past eight to get in at two. It is no way to approach the Pyrenees, unless one happens to be taking a journey down France for other purposes which will lead him towards the districts of Narbonne and Perpignan. It must be noted that since the war there is an excellent cross-country train from Bordeaux and Toulouse to Narbonne, where change for Perpignan.
No other approach to the Pyrenees save these by railway from the north will be of use to most travellers from England.
The new, good and fast day train from Toulouse is now at eleven in the morning.
The approaches from the south, in the rare case of a traveller who may take the Pyrenees on the way back from Spain, are all difficult with the exception of the line from Saragossa to Jaca. A main line leads of course from the capital to Saragossa, there one must cross the Ebro to the station upon the northern bank. The train to Jaca goes by Huesca and it takes all day, but it is worth doing in order to get within a day’s walk of the main range.
From every other centre, except from Pamplona, the Pyrenees are hopelessly distant. Seo and the Catalan valleys depend upon Barbastro as does the valley of the Cinca in Aragon, but it is a most tedious journey in stuffy omnibuses followed by an equally tedious day and a half or two days upon a mule before you find yourself in the high Pyrenees. Pamplona is, roughly speaking, one day’s walk from the heart of the mountains, and no other town, excepting Jaca, upon the railway on the Spanish side is worth considering as a rail-head.
It should be noted that there is during the summer months a motor car service between Pamplona and Jaca, which goes along the valley of the Aragon and covers the distance in the better part of a day.