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Within the
National Park,the
Pyrenean range stretches
over about one hundred kilometres from West to East. Six main valleys
come one after the other, each with its own characteristics : The
Aspe valley and
its vast forests, last stronghold for the bears, Its neighbouring Ossau
valley,
main valley for pastoralism, the
Azun valley or Arrens valley, overlooked
by the Balaïtous
(3144 m), the Cauterets valley
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with its spectacular waterfalls, the Luz-Gavarnie valley and its
world famous cirques and the Aure valley and the Néouvielle
Nature Reserve, furthest to the East, with the highest mountain
pine forests in Europe.
If you want to know more, refer to the
ROUTES and MAPS
rubric or the
MAPS AND REFUGES rubric
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The
Pyrenees, a natural border :
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France on one side, Spain on the other...
Two very different climates.
More than a border, the mountains form a real climatic barrier.
The oceanic influence gives the French, Northern slopes a mild
and humid climate while the Southern winds give the Spanish slopes
an arid look.
The Pyrenees National Park has a 15 kilometres long border in common
with its Spanish counterpart, the
Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park.
The Franco-Spanish Gavarnie-Monte Perdido massif was registered
as a UNESCO World Heritage site under the name of "Pyrénées
Monte Perdido Cirques et Canyons" in 1997.
This site was singled out for its natural and cultural heritage
(canyons and spectacular landscapes / social and economic organisation
set up as early as the middle ages).
How
were they formed, these peaks, valleys, canyons, boulder fields, cirques
and luscious plateaux which make our hikes so magic ?
It took millions of years to shape these exceptional landscapes. It all
started during the Palaeozoic era, 500 million years ago, and is
still unfinished.
A great climatic and geological adventure !
Sedimentary and crystalline rock "knocked about" by tectonic movements,
glaciations and erosion have given birth to exceptional landscapes : successions
of lakes, breathtaking waterfalls, immense cliffs, barely penetrable gorges,
etc.
You must imagine earth tremors uplifting, folding and breaking the
sandstones, limestones,
granites, schists… the wind, the frost, the sun and water sculpting the rock, wrinkling the shear rockfaces.
Then little by little the colonization of this land by vegetation, animals and Man...
Puis peu à peu la colonisation de ce territoire par la végétation,
les animaux et les hommes…
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