Barèges

The town is bounded in the north-west by the Bastan river which flows from east to west in a narrow valley through the main village (at an altitude of 1250 m) and through its main inhabited areas. The Bastan forms the northern border of the commune with the commune of Sers.

The Valley of Barèges

The rest of the territory of the commune is mostly a vast plateau surrounded by several peaks that form most of its other borders with:

• to the East: the commune overlooks the ski area shared with Bagnères-de-Bigorre, the Super Barèges station;
• to the south-east: on the border with Vielle-Aure are the peaks of Aygues-Cluses (2620 m), Gourget (2619 m, the north-east ridge is also the northernmost part of the north-western boundary of the Néouvielle National Nature Reserve), Estibère (2663 m), and Madamète (2657 m). About 1 km north of the Madamète within the commune there is Tracens peak (2551 m), which slopes towards the middle of the plateau;
• to the south: on the border of the exclave of Soulan (Saint-Lary-Soulan) are the Crêtes d'Espade (Espade ridges) leading to the Pic de Néouvielle (3091 m) which also marks the southern part of the north-western boundary of the Néouvielle National Nature Reserve;
• to the south-west: on the border of Luz-Saint-Sauveur are the Pic des Trois conseillers (Peak of three councilors) (3039 m), the Turon de Néouvielle (3035 m), the Coume de l'Ours Peak (2855 m), and Mont Arrouy (2772 m but actually located in Luz-Saint-Sauveur and closer to the border with Betpouey, but the north face descends to the plateau in Barèges);
• to the west: on the border with Betpouey and close to Barèges village is the Ayre Peak (2416 m) with a cable car up its north face from the village and ski lifts in winter.

The village sits on the D918 road, which to the west leads down the valley to Lourdes, Tarbes and Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrénées Airport. To the north-east, the road continues up the valley to the Col du Tourmalet and onwards to Arreau and Bagnères-de-Bigorre.

The Bastan river, known locally as the "Gave de Bastan", is a right tributary of the Gave de Gavarnie and has its source in the north-east of the commune near the Col du Tourmalet whose slopes and the slopes of the surrounding peaks supply water. The Ruisseau d'Aygues Cluses rises in the south-east of the commune and flows north to join the Bastan. The Ruisseau de la Glère flows north from the Lac de la Glère in the south-west of the commune to join the Bastan east of the village. Two small streams rise south of the village and flow north to join the Bastan: the Ruisseau de Rioulet and the Ruisseau du Pontis.[4]

The mountainous plateau that forms the largest area of the commune is dotted with small lakes that feed the streams flowing to the Bastan.

In February 2013 an avalanche blocked the Bastan at the height of the Barèges Spa and the town was evacuated. On 31 May 2013 snow accumulated and there was an avalanche below the Lienz which covered nearly 200 metres of the bed of the Bastan. After a heatwave on 15 and 16 June followed by thunderstorms and incessant rain on 17 and 18 June there was rising water associated with snow melt. Hampered by the remains of the avalanche, the waters of the Bastan overflowed the road on the right bank, the Place de Barèges (Town Square), then the HLM parking, camping area, and seven houses but there were no injuries reported. The Thermal Baths of Barzun were also heavily damaged. The stricken town was evacuated on June 19 through an unusual opening of the Col du Tourmalet which is always under snow.

Winter in the Village

Barèges is situated at the perimeter of the National Parc of the Pyrénées. In and around the village all mountain sports are practiced, such as paragliding, walking, cycling, canyoning/caving, mountain climbing, mountain biking, and more.

Barèges is also the second oldest ski resort in France, and when the funicular was opened in 1936 the resort became a tourist destination. The resort, now linked with La Mongie, is the largest ski area in the French Pyrénées.

The historic Funicular of Ayré started from the centre of Barèges and had an intermediate stop on the height of the plateau of Lienz. Later in 1947 it was extended and allowed to reach an altitude of 2005 m on the northern flank of Ayré Peak (which rises to 2416 m). In the early 1950s Électricité de France (EDF) implanted a huge construction site a little higher still (at 150 m below the top of the Ayré) to make an 11 km long tunnel to store water from the Néouvielle massif and from the Gavarnie for the Capdelong Dam and bring them through the mountains to the Pragnères hydroelectric plant. The existing funicular could not be extended and a cable car was built by EDF, first for its own use to connect to the tunnel construction site base camp and the refuge of Glère nearby (the remains of the tunnel construction and the base camp have not yet, in 2013, been cleaned).

With the development of tourism, the EDF cable car was then slightly modified to be also used by skiers and hikers visiting the refuge. When the piste which now descends to the refuge was established in the early 1980s, the cable car, which was no longer used for the transportation of engineers controlling the work (who were much less numerous than during construction) was downgraded. When it no longer met safety standards and it was no longer necessary to go to the refuge due to the new piste, the cable car was stopped completely and dismantled in the 1990s.

The old Funicular of Ayré was also closed in 2000 due to aging structures and safety, despite the maintenance and modernization of buildings and equipment that had taken place over the decades. As of 2013 it has not reopened but a new project is being supported by the council, much of the population, and the friends of the station to restore the structures and aging equipment to modern standards (this is the largest and most expensive part of the work required excluding the subsequent operating costs), to modernise and diversify activities in the resort, and to reopen year round tourism.

A cable car (1954–1968) and then a Gondola lift (1968–2002) also connected Barèges to Laquette (altitude 1715 m). As it no longer met safety standards it was removed. The only vestige of the cable car is the departure station on the right bank of Bastan above Barèges in the Aygat locality which was also used for the Gondola lift going up to the plateau of Lienz.

Tunnels to Super-Baràges

In order to ski since 2002 the ascent has been by car or bus from the D918 road (along the Bastan) to the departure point for the lifts at Tournaboup which has been built with ample parking, ticketing, and an ESF office. It is sometimes possible to access Super Barèges via the Col du Tourmalet (the road is often closed in winter or requires special equipment). The pass road is dangerous and the small resort does not allow extended parking for numerous ski vehicles so this station has been closed to non-resident passenger vehicles which must remain parked at Tournaboup and reach Super Barèges by the Caoubère and Tourmalet chairlifts which connect Barèges to La Mongie.

Barèges-Gavarnie is an Appellation d'origine contrôlée (AOC) for French Mutton. This AOC was created in 2003.

Parisian Costume Satin Hat. Barège gown trimmed with Barège frills. Barège scarf, 1823

Barège is a type of goat wool which was originally made in Barèges. The undercoat from the goat fleeces yield a kind of lightweight wool and used as a Cashmere wool for a particular weave in gowns,[16] scarves,[17] and necklaces.[18]

Barèges gowns are cited by Victor Hugo in Les Misérables, and in both Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert.

George Sand wrote on 28 August 1825, when in Bagneres-de-Bigorre, in a letter to her mother: "Je vous porterais du barège de Barèges" (I would bring you some barège from Barèges).[19]

Barèges Town Festival 15 August 2014 - Wool working

• 
  Wools from Sheep
• 
  Carding
• 
  Spinning on a Spindle
• 
  Spinning on a Spinning wheel

• Jean Moulaus, The virtues of mineral waters of Baigniéres and Baréges, 1718. (in French)
• François Pasumot, Physical travels in the Pyrenees in 1788 and 1789: Natural history of some of these mountains; especially around Barège, Bagnères, Cauterès, and Gavarnie. With geographical maps, Le Clere, 1797. Harvard University Archives (in French)
• History of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 1731, p. 69, University of Gand Archives (in French)
• Théophile de Bordeu, Research on mucosal tissue, or the cell body, and some diseases of the chest - 1767 - Uses of Barèges waters and mercury, Pierre Franç. Didot le jeune, 1767 (in French)
• Pierre-Joseph Buc'Hoz, Mineralogical and hydrological Dictionary of France, 1772, p. 87, Harvard College Library Archives (in French)
• Camille Rousset, History of Louvois and his political and military administration, Barèges, 1680–1886, p. 33 (in French)
• Jean Dulsaux, Voyage to Barège and Hautes-Pyrénées, Didot, 1796, Vol. 1, 349 pages, consulted on 23 May 2013 (in French)