The morning was warm and sunny as we left Refuge Baysellance
and began our long, nearly snow free walk down the canyon in a long descent
toward Gavarnie . The steep twisting trail down the canyon opened up into a
beautiful broad valley with a small dammed lake. We basked on some rocks in the
beautiful sunshine for a while before descending the rest of the way via a dirt
road and then a paved road rather than on the somewhat longer trail.

A British father-daughter duo we met at dinner at Refuge
Baysellance made some strong food and accommodation recommendations for
Gavarnie which Doug and I took. Le Compostelle Hotel (a name I can only
remember if I think of it as The Compost Pile Hotel) and La Ruede Restaurant. They
pointed us in the right direction since the small but nice room was only 50
Euros a night and the lovely lady at the front desk was eager to do a few
pieces of laundry for us at no extra charge. I didn’t think that ever happened
in Europe these days.

Gavarnie is a famous but not particularly attractive or
interesting small town. By day it’s packed with visitors disgorged from buses
on package tours from which it is a side trip from Lourdes, the Catholic
pilgrimage town down valley to the north . Gavarnie has plenty of bars,
refreshment stands, and trinket shops to accommodate them and also has lots of
donkeys for lazy or disabled people to ride to the Cirque.

“Why does anyone need donkeys?” I wondered since the Cirque
de Gavarnie is “right over there” as I looked at the massive circular rock wall
and peaks above it, small hanging glaciers, and cascading waterfalls that is
such a spectacular and famous sight. Well, that was until Doug and I started
walking toward it. From town the walk took well over an hour and must be at
least three miles with perhaps a 1,000 foot (300 meter) vertical climb to the
Grand Cascade. The walls of the Cirque are nearly a mile tall, a scale so
massive it’s hard to comprehend. We’re often used to looking at cliffs that
might be perhaps 1,000 feet tall from a distance, and from some distance out
the Cirque isn’t that different looking. When you realize how far it is and how
the Wall of the Cirque hardly seems to be getting any closer as you are walking
towards it, you finally realize just how stunning it all is.

Although we walked along way in the morning, the walk to the
Cirque felt like child’s play without our backpacks on. While getting smoked on
the trail for days by fast moving walkers, down in Gavarnie we were walking
among normal sedentary and chubby Europeans, so it was a great feeling to be
some of the fastest movers on the trail, to skillfully hop from rock to rock to
cross streams, and to balance gracefully on boulders .

I should put in a good word for La Ruede restaurant (can a
restaurant be rude?) The evening menu was spectacular local cuisine of the
Bigorre region. I had never heard of Bigorre before, but it’s apparently what a
small area around Lourdes and Gavarnie with its capital at Tarbes is known as.
The meal included a large tureen of Garbure, a vegetable spoup with huge chunks
of smoked ham, followed by Salade Bigorrendine with lettuce, bacon, tomato,
chicken gizzards, goat cheese, and toasts with foir gras. The main course was
Entrecote de Beouf (steak) with Dauphinois potatoes, and green beans, and then
finally a tart filled with local blueberries for dessert. This may well have
been our best meal in the Pyrenees!