Grandiose! How else to describe the Cirque de Gavarnie? A hikers Paradise..

The great Pyrenean limestone circles owe their existence to the work of huge glaciers that have long since disappeared. Gavarnie, in the Hautes-Pyrénées, is the most celebrated of them all. 

 Firstly, imagine the scenery; you are in the heart of the Pyrenees National Park. There, astride the French-Spanish border, is the massif of Mont-Perdu that rises over 10,000 feet in altitude. To the south are the extraordinary canyons of Ordesa, Aniscle and Pineta. To their north, the land of cirques with the majestic Gavarnie and Troumouse, the greatest of all, and Estaube, the wildest. 

 In 1997, this ensemble of more than 30,000 hectares was given UNESCO’s World Heritage Site award, for both natural and cultural reasons. Only 27 sites in the world have received such an award to date. 

Gavarnie has long been a source of astonishment. Its reputation comes from the various explorations it has inspired. Botanists, scientists, romantics, painters, poets and mountaineers in search of exploits or sensations have, since the 16th century, made Gavarnie the cradle of what is known as ‘Pyreneism’. The cirque became legend when Victor Hugo, in his illustrious poem “Dieu”, described it as an “impossible and extraordinary object”, a “coliseum of nature”. 

 Just 1 ½ hour drive from Tarbes/Lourdes.