Local Area

Arrens village church

Arrens swimming pool

Arrens from Col des Borderes

The Pic-du-Midi observatory

The Marcadau Valley

Lourdes

Cirque de Troumouse

The Aucun Working Horse Festival

Les Artigaux is situated near the picturesque village of Arrens in the Val d’Azun. The village is at an altitude of 860m and is encircled by the breathtaking peaks of the Pyrénées.

Arrens has a small supermarket, two bakeries, a butcher, a newsagent, a pharmacy and a shop selling regional produce. There are several local farms where you can see cheese being made, sample it and buy it direct from the farmer. You can also buy local jam, honey, foie gras and confit de canard direct from the producers. Local delicacies can be also sampled at the restaurants in Arrens and neighbouring villages. Throughout July and August, the village has a market every Sunday morning where you can sample all the local produce.

Other amenities in Arrens include mini-golf, a climbing wall, tennis courts and a heated open-air swimming pool (open July and August).

The attractive spa town of Argelès-Gazost (15 minutes away) has a good range of shops and restaurants, as well as an excellent market every Tuesday morning. There is a thermal spa, a casino and an animal park featuring animals of the Pyrenees such as bears, isards, marmots and wolves.

Lourdes is just 25km away. The town’s famous shrine of St-Bernadette attracts millions of visitors and pilgrims each year.

In February 1858, Bernadette Soubirous saw the first of 18 apparitions of the Virgin Mary in a riverside grotto near Lourdes. Over time this grotto has become one of the most important shrines of the Catholic Church and Lourdes now welcomes over 5 million visitors a year. The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception has been built close to the site of the grotto and this stands within an area known as the Sanctuaries. There are 22 places of worship in the Sanctuaries, with the grotto as its focal point. It is also possible to visit the many places in and around Lourdes that were significant in St-Bernadette’s life. At 9pm every evening, there is a torchlight procession which is followed by the last Mass of the day conducted at the Grotto of the Apparition. On special occasions, mass is held in the open air - an estimated 220,000 people attended when Pope John Paul II visited in August 2004.

As well as the religious sites, Lourdes has a fortified castle dating from the 11th century, a number of museums and a recently refurbished covered market. There is also a funicular railway to the top of the Pic-du-Jer with superb views of the town and the surrounding mountains.

Recommended places to visit include the observatory perched on the Pic-du-Midi-de-Bigorre. At 2877m this is reached by cable car from La Mongie and on a clear day it is possible to see 300km and one-fifth of France. One of the most popular tourist sites in the Pyrénées is the World Heritage site of the Cirque-de-Gavarnie. The top of the Cirque reaches 3000m and with an overall drop of 422m the waterfall down its face is the highest in France. In contrast to Gavarnie the neighbouring Cirque-de-Troumouse has not been commercialised and also offers spectacular views and an abundance of wildlife. Beyond Cauterets is the Pont d'Espagne which is one of the entry points for the National Park and has some great walks to Lac de Gaube and beyond towards the Vignemale (3298m). Alternatively you can follow the Marcadau valley which climbs towards the Spanish border. The underground caverns at Bétherram, near Lourdes, are some of the largest in France and include an underground train and boat as part of the viewing trip.

Les Artigaux is close to some of the most spectacular scenery France has to offer, with picturesque lakes, traditional mountain villages and stunning views at every turn.