can be reached by Eurostar. From there SNCF run high speed trains to a variety of destinations including Hendaye, Toulouse and Perpignan. The main west–east line joins Hendaye, Bayonne, Pau, Lourdes, Tarbes, Toulouse and Perpignan.
From Bayonne there are local trains to Bidarray and Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, from where there are buses to Sare and St-Étienne-de-Baïgorry.
From Pau you can take a train to Oloron-Ste-Marie then bus to Etsaut or Arette-la Pierre-St-Martin. From Pau there are buses to Larun and connections to Gabas and Gourette.
From Lourdes there are buses to Argelès-Gazost with connections to Arrens-Marsous, Cauterets, Luz-Saint-Sauveur, Barèges and Gavarnie.
From Tarbes there are trains to St-Lary-Soulan connecting with buses to Vielle-Aure, or trains to Bagnères-de-Luchon (via Montréjeau).
There are bus services to Sentein, Les Bordes-sur-Lez, Seix, St-Lizier and Aulas-les-bains from St-Girons with connections to Toulouse.
From Toulouse there are trains to Latour-de-Carol passing through Tarascon-sur-Ariège, from where there are buses to Auzat, and through Mérens-les-Vals.
There is also a rail link from Perpignan to Villefranche and on by narrow gauge railway, Train Jaune, via la Cabanasse to Latour-de-Carol, or a direct bus link from Perpignan to Latour-de-Carol crossing the GR10 at the Col de la Perche. There is a bus service from Perpignan to Arles-sur-Tech and le Perthus.
At the end of your walk there is a good rail service between Banyuls-sur-Mer and Perpignan.
Plane
At the time of writing, Ryanair fly from Stansted and some regional airports to Biarritz, Lourdes, Carcassonne and Perpignan, and British Airways fly direct to Toulouse. Air France has flights from London to Pau and a big choice of destinations if you fly via Paris. Easyjet fly from London to Biarritz and Bristol or London to Toulouse.
Equipment
GR10 hikers on the approach to Col d’Auéran (Stage 29)
This is a serious expedition so you should have previous experience of backpacking or long-distance walking before attempting this fantastic route. A few general points are made on equipment here.
Keep your load as light as possible. If you don’t need it, don’t carry it!
You will need a sheet sleeping bag or lightweight sleeping bag for use in refuges or some gîtes d’étape. If you are using accommodation you may still want to carry a sleeping bag and camping mat to enable you to bivouac.
Your waterproofs should be able to cope with thunderstorms in the High Pyrenees or steady rain in the Basque Country.
Shorts are the preferred legwear of most hikers in the high summer.
You should have sufficient clothing to cope with sub-zero temperatures.
A sun hat is strongly recommended and use plenty of sun-screen.
Good quality lightweight boots or sturdy walking shoes are the best footwear. Heavy boots aren’t necessary and trainers aren’t really robust enough for the terrain. Make sure you have a good tread.
As a minimum, if you are camping, you should have containers capable of carrying three litres of water.
It is strongly recommended that you use two walking poles. If you are not carrying walking poles you may need an ice-axe to cope with snow on the high passes. Crampons may be needed in early season in a high snow year.
If you are carrying any electronic devices needing recharging, remember to carry a continental adaptor.
Safety
On the GR10, especially in the Ariège, you are often traversing very steep slopes where a fall could have fatal consequences. It is not the difficult terrain – there is very little difficult terrain on the GR10 – but it is the careless slip on an easy, but exposed, path that is potentially dangerous. It is strongly recommended that you use two walking poles and learn to use them effectively to prevent a careless slip on steep traverses. This is in addition to the other uses of walking poles such as crossing snowfields, stream crossings, descending steep slopes, clearing vegetation and fighting off dogs. Poles might also help in the extremely unlikely event of meeting a bear or the more likely encounter with a bull or even for use as an emergency tent pole.
Culture and languages
Spanish Siesta
You may not be in Spain, but in the smaller villages you can expect shops to be open in the morning, closed during the afternoon (possibly from 12.00pm to 4.00pm) and open again in the evening. In larger towns they are more likely to be open all day.
Languages
French is spoken throughout the French Pyrenees. In addition the locals may also speak Basque or Catalan. English is now spoken much more widely than it was in the 20th century, especially by younger people.
There is a lot of confusion with place names in the Pyrenees, with many different and inconsistent spellings. Villages, towns and geographical features often have a French name, a Basque or Catalan name and possibly a Spanish name.
In this guide, the French name has been used unless the Basque or Catalan name is in widespread use.
Politics
When they were independent states the Basque Country and Catalonia were much larger than at present and included large chunks of the Pyrenees which are now in France. Independence movements aren’t as active as in Spain, but many people will still think of themselves as Basque or Catalan rather than French.
Chemin de la Liberté
Le Chemin de la Liberté plaque
As you walk the GR10 you will see frequent references to Le Chemin de la Liberté. After the fall of France in 1940 there was a steady stream of military personnel, including escaped prisoners of war and Frenchmen wanting to join the allied armies, as well as persecuted civilians, including many Jews, trying to escape across the border from France into Spain. From November 1942 the security of the border was taken over by the Germans with frontier guards posted along the whole length of the Pyrenees, and a forbidden zone 20km deep was set up into which access was only allowed with a special pass.
It then became vital to develop more efficient and certainly more secret ways of reaching safety in Spain. The result was the founding of many well-organised escape lines whose aim was to pass not only men but also important military information and documents. This was very dangerous work and more than half of the 2000 known guides were caught and either executed immediately or imprisoned to die later in concentration camps. It is estimated that 33,000 men, women and children escaped successfully to freedom.
The best known of these escape routes is Le Chemin de la Liberté, which passes through the Ariège from Saint-Girons to Alos d’Isil in Spain. When you hike the GR10 in good summer weather, remember that many of these crossings would have been made at night in appalling weather and in winter over snow-covered mountains.
