The Baronnies, in the department of Hautes-Pyrénées
The Pyrénées
High summits, prairies, hillsides and valleys… the Hautes-Pyrenees, it’s a whole palette of charming landscapes. Each one of them tells a story with a particular sounds and its own personnality.
More specifically, we are located in the Pyrenean Piedmont, between the Campan valley and the Aure valley.
The Pyrenean Piedmont represents a group of low-lying rock folds, which lie on either side of the central line of the high Pyrenean peaks and whose altitude rarely exceeds 2000 meters.
Rock folds are often stretched in longitude, parallel to the chain. On the French side, it is an area geographically characterized by small valleys, gorges, small spaces of plain. The habitat is in the form of dwellings of village type, as in Ariège.
The Baronnies,
Wild or garden landscapes, villages huddled in the valley floors, a farm in a crest, a herd of cows or sheep, vast forests and beautiful limestone cliffs, it’s all of the Baronnies and even more. The Baronnies, with their hills and rolling mountains, their numerous rivers and their untouched nature are the paradise for hikers and holidaymakers who come here to seek tranquility.
Although wild and mysterious, the Baronnies have always attracted the men present since Prehistory (Prehistoric Cave of Labastide). In the Middle Ages, castles emerged in the landscape to better protect and watch over these lands (Avezac, Esparros, Lomné, Mauvezin) and still leave today that proud towers still stand.
Still far away from mass tourism, the Baronnies offer landscapes with authentic charm punctuated by villages with typical houses connected by bucolic roads, where sometimes you have to know to get lost to appreciate the landscapes and points of view (Col de Coupe, Plateau de Cieutat, Tour d’Avezac, Col du Couret, Col des Palomières …).
Remarkable sites appear like treasures that we want to keep for themselves. The cave of Esparros, a real mineral garden is the underground jewel of the Baronnies. The water so abundant in the Baronnies has indeed created an important underground system of which the most emblematic is that linking the village of Labastideau and the village of Esparros. It becomes almost miraculous and at least beneficial to Capvern where located the spa of Fernandel or Brassens have spent some good time.
The entire Baronnies is an ideal playground for hikes who will find here the beginnings of the high mountains (signal of the bassia at 1921m) but also more family hikes and walks leading to hidden waterfalls, abandoned villages or along small watercourses of Little Amazonia.
Here and there you can come cross artisans who still work the resources of the surroundings and open their workshops to the curious, as well as producers who are proud of their places and perpetuate agricultural traditions.
The Tourist Office Neste Baronnies present only a part of the Baronnies.
To discover the website lesbaronnies-au19eme.fr which presents a historical and sociological approach of the Baronnies.
LOMNE
This is a small village in Baronnies, it has about twenty permanent inhabitants and many holiday homes.
Lomné is located 30 km south-east of Lourdes, 12km east of Bagnières de Bigorre and 10km west of Lannemezan.