La barthe-de-neste

Neste Baronnies is ground of traditions. Here the men live since always and have work and composed with nature and its resources. The villages are installed in bottom of valley or on the peaks, village-street or at the tightened houses, all develop the local architecture with the slate covers and the dry stone walls covered with rough coat.

The woodworks are decorated sculptures to be discovered and are painted in blue, green or red trying to compete with nature. To notice, " penaüs" decorating the pinions and the keystones worked as in Héchettes.

The small inheritance is omnipresent and it is necessary to take time to stroll, seek and especially look at to discover an old laundrette where one could not wash wool, a nicely restored fountain, a small bridge or a mill which could function. As many traces, testimonys to be discovered. The men often kept the old gestures and while seeking well, one finds the blacksmith able still to forge the steel, the shepherd manufacturing the wood collars. The gestures are still there, with you to find them.

Easy excursion  approximately 3h30

• 1/ Departure: Wood of Plantade (formerly place of market, animations and  grazing ground near the village). Pleasant passages in forests in the middle of the oaks, beeches or Oregon firs. At the exit of wood, to skirt a surrounded property of a large wall, to take on the right and continue to skirt the wall facing the Pyrenees (beautiful prospects), then to take on the left to reach the level of an old station gasoline in D.929 that it is necessary to cross for engaging on a way facing the station.
• 2/ Shortly after; to leave the way to take some on the left in direction of the district of Low Mour (traditional houses, cross with all the symbols of the passion of Christ, Vault St-Barthelemy, the Middle Ages, in the course of restoration). Before the cross, to take on the left, to find D142 near the typical bridge of Montoussé.
• 3/ To take on the left and a little later to leave the road for a way on the right which skirts an alluvial terrace of the NESTE (seen on the remainders of the Castle of Barthe, old county). The way skirts a wood and one is in the commune of Escala. To take on the left to find D938 that you cross.
• 4/ Passage in front of the church of Escala (sundial), then to leave the road on the left for a way and to take again on the left in direction of Barthe de Neste (beautiful sights on the Pyrenees and the valley of Neste like on the edges of the Plate of Lannemezan (Escala-scale-passage of the valley to the plate). Return on Barthe de Neste and crossing of the village. To note in Main street; facing the Post office, the House of the 4 valleys (old seat of the district of the 4 valleys to the XVIII th century). Passage in front of the market and return to the Wood of Plantade by the street on the right of the croi and the grocer (formerly, the Haourès place was the place of the fire of the St-Jean).

In the same way, of circuits VTT allow to discover the plate or the mountain part of the valleys with very beautiful landscapes in forests and meadows of the altitude:

• The mountain of Baronnies,
• The Mountain of Neste,
• The turn of the Mount,
• The turn of Avezac.

The mountains are practised also vertically. The large cliffs of climbing are equipped and propose a large variety of ways:

• - High Cliff of Bolt (access since Rebouc):
• "The site" , splendid calcareous bar until 120 m in height, 182 level roads 3 with 8c.
• Cliff of Super Bolt (access since Heches, course pf 1,5 km on foot): 81 ways on a 100 m height cliff (4 lengths).
• Rock of Lortet (chart IGN): in cliff dominating the village, rock a 25 height meters with 16 ways equipped from 4 B with 7 B.

Neste and the Arros offer very beautiful courses of fishing to the fly facing Pyrenees in the " smooth " of Neste or to try to mislead " ram Fario" in limpid water of Arros.
These rivers, by their characteristics, allow all the types of fishings out of fresh water.

• Neste: torrent-like river.

Course " No Kill" in the crossing of the village of Lortet, very strong density of trouts. Very beautiful spot vis-a-vis strengthened cliffs.

• Arros: river of resurgences to transparent water.

Splendid more broken courses but, strong density of trouts.

Caution: a chart of fishing is necessary, place of sale: Mill of Baronnies 65130 SARLABOUS

All the ways encourage with discovered and one should not hesitate to engage in order to discover this world more closely. The others make it possible to discover a unit, to take the measurement of this space.

• The Collar of Coupe (D26 between Labastide and Esparros): beautiful points of view on the valley of Baronnies, the villages of Laborde and Esparros and in the east; the village of Labastide blotti at the bottom of a vast depression; the plate of Lannemezan and mountains of the valley of Neste (the Mount of Lortet…)
• Towards the Collar of Estivere (since Rebouc, to take the bridge on Neste and to go up through the village Estivere direction): point of view on the villages of Lortet and Hèches, the valley of Neste and the first buttresses Pyrenean with the beautiful cliffs limestones.
• View-point on Barthe de Neste (since D717 of Escala at Avezac-station): Beautiful sights on all the valley of Neste, the bottom of valley and the solid mass of Bassia.
• The Moor of Avezac (D17 to take from Avezac-Station direction Baronnies): beautiful prospects on the hills for Baronnies, the villages of Prat and Avezac, the Peak of the South of Bigorre.

The natural heritage particularly rich and is marked by the presence of the water and of the mountain. In this calcareous zone, the caves and the pits are numerous and the Community of the Communes Neste Baronnies currently sets up a tourist program of valorization based on the opening to the public of the Pit of Esparros and of the Caves of Labastide. A third project on the level of the Caves of Lortet must take into account important environmental constraints (animal species and vegetable fragile…).

The Pit of Esparros: It is a site particularly rich in aragonite (splendid rock crystal). It made object of a fascinating éco-installation of account safeguarding of a significant medium and a tourist installation. This allowed the opening to the public of an exceptional site by the variety and the beauty of its concretions. The site of the Caves of very rich Labastide on the prehistoric level is opened with the public since the 1° May 2004. The landscapes are engraved by the water at the interior of the caves as on the surface.