Spring at the Pont d'Espagne in the Pyrenees by Hilke Maunder

Eight kilometres south of the thermal town of Cauterets in the Hautes-Pyrénées, in the heart of the Pyrenees National Park, hides a protected spot of nature that attracted romantics such as Victor Hugo, George Sand and Charles Baudelaire in the 19th century: the Pont d'Espagne. The "Bridge of Spain" is a wild and romantic mountain idyll at an altitude of 1,496 metres, which has only been preserved thanks to the commitment of conservationists.When the state electricity supplier Électricité de France (EdF) built several hydroelectric power plants in the Pyrenees in the 1950s, Cauterets opposed the construction. The water that flows from the mountains here is not tamed - as it is elsewhere - but wild, and the course of the Gaube with its cascades and waterfalls is as pristine as it once was. Rock, water and forest, bizarrely shaped by the weight of the winter snow, form a wonderful natural landscape at the Pont d'Espagne at an altitude of 1,500 metres, which is one of the Grands Sites de France. Yosemite Pyrénénées is what national park ranger Jean-Paul Crampe once called it. In the past, spa guests travelled up into the mountains by stagecoach or on foot. Today, a ribbon of asphalt winds its way up to the large car park at the Maison du Parc National des Pyrénées visitor centre, where the exhibition Au fil de l'eau presents the flora, fauna and landscapes of the high valley. Here you can buy entrance tickets, souvenirs, snacks and clean toilets - and start the guided hikes in mountain boots, cross-country skis or snowshoes.
If you don't want to walk steeply uphill through the white water forest, you can take the Télésiège du Lac for the short ride up to the high plateau.