Pyrenean cols: Tourmalet and Gavarnie

Route description

Pau’s Boulevard des Pyrénées looks straight across to the mountains, and the château where Henri IV was born stands at its end. From here head south-east to Lourdes, a pilgrimage town with a vast sanctuary on the river and a castle on a rock above the old town.

The road then enters the mountains, following the Gave de Pau through a narrow gorge to Luz-Saint-Sauveur, a spa village with a fortified church. From Luz the D921 climbs on to Gavarnie at the end of the valley.

From the village of Gavarnie a mostly gentle path, about an hour and a half each way, leads to the foot of the Cirque de Gavarnie, a vast rock amphitheatre with one of Europe’s tallest waterfalls. Parking in the village is charged in summer, and the walk is best done early before the day’s heat and crowds.

Return to Luz and take the D918 east up the Col du Tourmalet, at 2,115 m the most climbed pass in Tour de France history, then down past La Mongie. Expect cyclists on every bend, and give them room on the steep hairpins. The pass is usually closed by snow from late autumn until late spring, so this route is for summer.