Page 461 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - France

8 9
Forêt d’Iraty Oloron-Ste-Marie
! B7 ⌂ Pyrénées- ! B7 ⌂ Pyrénées- SLEEP
Atlantiques @ St-Jean- Atlantiques £ @ n Allées
Pied-de-Port £ n St-Jean- du Comte de Tréville; www. Hotel-Restaurant
Pied-de-Port, 05 59 37 03 tourisme-oloron.com Euzkadi
57; Larrau, 05 59 28 62 80
A small town at the junction Its façade adorned with
A plateau clothed in beech of the Aspe and Ossau valleys, Espelette peppers, this
woods and moorland, the Oloron grew from a Celtiberian family-run three-star
Forêt d’Iraty is famous for its settlement. It is famed for hotel offers 27 rooms,
opportunities for walking and producing the famous classic a friendly restaurant
cross-country skiing. Here French berets and for huge and a swimming pool.
the ancient breed of Basque agricultural fairs in May and ! B6 ⌂ 285 Karrika
ponies, the pottocks, run half- September. The town’s great Nagusia, Espelette
wild. These creatures have not glory is the doorway of the ∑ www.hotel-
changed since the prehistoric Romanesque Cathédrale restaurant-euzkadi.com
inhabitants of the region Ste-Marie, with its biblical and ¡¡¡
traced their silhouettes onto Pyrenean scenes, while the
the walls of local caves. Église Sainte-Croix has Hotel de l’Ocean
The tourist office at St-Jean- Spanish-influenced carvings
Pied-de-Port publishes maps and Moorish-style vaulting. This immaculate three-
of local walks. The best begins Head up the Aspe Valley star hotel near the Port
des Pêcheurs has
at the Chalet Pedro car park, to try one of the famous contemporary rooms
south of the lake on the Iraty cheeses. A side road leads with balconies and
plateau, and takes you along to Lescun, beyond which is lovely views of
the GR10 path to a group of a spectacular range of saw- Le Grande Plage
3,000-year-old standing toothed peaks topped by the
stones on the western side Pic d’Anie at 2,504 m (8,215 ft), ! B6 ⌂ 9 place Sainte-
of the Sommet d’Occabé. one of the most beautiful Eugénie, Biarritz
sights in the Pyrénées. This ∑ biarritz-hotel-
ocean.co.uk
is also one of the last refuges
of the Pyrenean brown bear, ¡¡¡
The winding route down their numbers diminished
from medieval Sauveterre- particularly by hunting and
de-Béarn to the Oloron river road- and house-building.
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