LIST OF HOTELS on GR10

Pyrennes GR10 Year 3 2006 Luz St Sauveur to Sentein Return

Day 1: Left home 04.45 after flights arrived PAU then train to Lourdes, bus to Luz St Sauveur. Arriving 1910. 15/6 Stayed again at Hotel Les Templier, reasonable, basic & friendly. We again had a good meal at La Tasca up at the square. Hotel made up a fairly good picnic for day 2.

16/6 Nice easy day, steady 2 hours upwards first thing staying to the original GR10 despite the signs

to go via the route near the road. Arrived Bareges 1450. Stayed at Hotel Europe. Large & a

bit impersonal but good room and receptionist very helpful. Place a bit “dead” but ate in a

17/6 We contrived a very welcome lift from a young lad who worked at the Hotel who took us up

first road section of the day saving about 1 hr 20min walking. Weather good so a very

enjoyable climb up to Col de Madamette 2509m. Cold on top but great views. Good lunch

courtesy of last nights hotel. Them down past the lake & onto the road. After giving a few

“friendly“ looks at half empty people carriers going our way we were given a lift down to the

hostel with a large fisherman with all his gear in his “CV!

At Hostel which was fine though we had later to share the dorm type room with 5 fairly

(We probably in hindsight may have been better pressing on the walk that day, but we were

not to know when arranging accommodation that we would be so fortunate with a lift first

thing & such good weather). An early night (hope my snoring disturbed the locals!)

18/6 Away early and soon got a lift back up to the GR with a Basque couple in a Ford Mondeo.

Subsequently to be referred to as the “Mondeo Pass”! Again a great walk up via the dams

over Col Porter. Good weather and saw a colony of Marmots watching our progress. Then

however as we started down the rain started and steadily became by far the worst we had

on the walk so far. Looking back up the last part of the descent it was pretty nasty.

Stayed at Hotel Aurelia, a nice patron & family. Feeling much better after a good shower,

some dry gear and a beer. Then the patron regaled us with a few tunes on his piano/organ!

A super meal and an early night again. They made us a great pic-nic.

19/6 A delayed start as the son of the patron had forgotten to put our wet gear out to dry in

their boiler house. However the patrons wife whisked me round to a laundry & the tumble

Weather good and arrived in Germ after 6.5 hrs, last bit pretty steep. Weather became dull as

arrived. Had planned to stay at Gite but decided to try the hotel instead. It was “OK” though

the room a bit cramped and lots of flies. However biggest disaster was we got the last 3

20/6 Woke up to steady drizzle & very poor visibility, at times less than 30 mtrs. After breakfast

no sign of improvement and the patron phoned for a local forecast which confirmed it was

We prepared to head down the road & try to hitch or bus towards Lac d'Oo or whatever.

However we were offered a lift by a nice Breton couple who had been staying at the hotel

and had decided to spend the day at Bagneres. We thought it churlish to refuse. The weather

persisted pretty poor all the way over the pass by road and as we arrived in Bagneres. After

thanking our transport we managed to book into out Hotel 2 Nations a day early! We very

disappointed not getting to Lac d'Oo as apparently it very nice. However we consoled

ourselves with a day of R & R. Had a couple of nice meals, watched some football and did a

21/6 Leisurely start, (maybe a result of the R & R!) shopped for pic-nic lunch at local market,

then 3 hrs hard climb up to Artigue. We managad to get into the local gite. A fairly sad

place. Dark, grubby, and lots of flies. A restful afternoon and then possibly the best meal yet

on the walk in the little local restaurant. Great food, very reasonable , and fantastic views to

the mountains as the sun set on the longest day of the year. (When we go back to “do”

Lac d'Oo must go there again!) (I will find the name later.)

22/6 Away early with a fairly good Pic-nic from the gite lady. A nice 2.5 hr climb to Col de Peyrahitta

then a navigation error to the variant Pic de Bacanere 2193m, not further but 250m higher. All

in bright sunshine above the clouds with all the high peaks sticking up above about 1500m.

Then steeply down to 1000m and 1.4 k of very slippy wet road to the gite at Fos. The

patron there had arranged previously with us that if he could not fit us in he would arrange an

alternative. As it happens his large party turned up & filled the place, but not before we had a

shower and a beer! He seemed a good bloke, however he delegated his long suffering wife to

transport us up to Melles & Auberge de Crabere. The Patron there is an “experience”.

We had a huge old fashioned room, followed by a great meal, beer & wine, all intermingled

with continous conversation with Patrick. He is a Chef of some note, he showed us a book he

had written, and apparently he had entertained the Toulouse Rugby team on occasion. Next

morning we had to convince him that the pic-nic he proposed (including about a kilo of jambon)

might be a bit too much!

23/6 Just as we headed off 2 guys in a small Peugot made the mistake of stopping to ask Patrick

for directions & lo & behold we got a lift to Labach! Very nice start to a nice day.

Very steep climb for a spell and then down to refuge. Not a very pretty building but functional

clean and comfortable. 8 French men & women also staying. We got a little info

re next stages from the gite manager regarding the next few days of the walk, not very

encouraging as far as accommodation goes. A few aperitifs with the French folk before

a nice meal of Soup, pasta, stew, cheese & cake. Early night, not a lot happens as they put the

Day 10: Refuge de L'etang to Eylie to Possibly Sentien or St Giron if possible.

24/6 Weather good and away at 0740 after a good breakfast and a good pic nic made up.

1 hr of up to the Col above the refuge then as tricky a 3 hr descent down past the old mine

workings as you could want. Had our lunch at top of the road. Just as we finished a

small white van appeared and we gave a friendly wave (John is very good at it!). It turned

out to be a young lady plumber & her boy friend. They took us 5k down the road & as they

dropped us we discovered we had left 1 of our disposable cameras at the pic nic site! They

volunteered to go back for it! Sure enough they reappeared complete with camera 20 mins

later. (Most French folk are great). Shortly after we got another lift with a young couple for

a further 5 or 6 k. By this time we getting concerned about the ominous clouds forming

and thunderous sounds in the distance. Then the plumber & her mate returned having

decided to go to St. Giron themselves! Didn't we do well!

A good clean up and out to dodge the thunderstorms for a few aperitifs and a great meal to

25/6 Bus to Boussens and TGV to Toulouse. We had not expected to get so far the previous day

so our return flight was for 26^th. Had a day around Toulouse and got home on 26^th June.