Magazine - 01/01/03

 

By John Samuel

 

It is no surprise to find that last season, France's ski lift system, the largest in the world, provided 655 million rides. It is, however, something of a surprise to find that ten per cent of those rides, around 65 million, were in the Pyrenees. Veteran ski journalist John Samuel reports on his visit to a resort south of Toulouse that he rates as a real discovery.

 

I admit it. I had never heard of Piau-Engaly when, over a cup of Darjeeling in Toulouse's specialist tea house, my student daughter mentioned it as a Pyrenean ski resort well worth the visit. "It's the highest place here, and they'll have snow when others don't." During a year as an English assistant at St Gaudens, the combination of a puffing, groaning, tenth-hand Citroen 2CV and membership of the Pyrenean Club had served to top up her ski education.

 

The first view of the high Pyrenees, so comprehensively dividing France and Spain, is not so much charming as breathtaking. They are less Alp than Himalaya. St Lary, on the road south to Lerida, is a simple village of grey brick, stone and slate, almost Cornish to the British eye. It is not strictly a ski village, although shops are full of fashionable gear, much as Val d'Isère or Les Arcs.

 

It suggests centuries of shepherds and woodsmen, coming to some sort of terms with the architecture of modern ski resorts and their lines of cabins, wires and pylons. Calais is 750 miles/1200km away, Toulouse 93 miles/150km. Pla d'Adet is the next stage up, a take-off point for the lifts and pistes of Esplaube and La Tourette. We continue up the valley, before turning off to the right for Piau-Engaly.

 

I expected little, but coming out of the final bend, there was this mini Shangri-La, shiny mist writhing above a sequestered bowl, with wide-winged eagles circling some of the craggy peaks surrounding it. Three circular complexes of hotel, apartments, cafés and shops were designed by the Bordeaux architect Jean-Marc Vialle around three knolls. The uphill lift capacity was in direct proportion to likely users.

 

Such was the layout that my wife, a non-skier, could sunbathe on ample terraces while seeing almost everything that was going on. But, at 1850 metres and on the same latitude as Corsica, she was careful to use a heavy-duty sunblock.

 

One of a variety of restaurants was run by an Englishwoman, though the lone English-speaking family we detected had a mother born at Lourdes, not far away. We quickly discovered a taste for the local cassoulet and the merguez sausage that was, perhaps, more Spanish chorizo than Toulouse. On the farewell night, there was a very special foie gras. As for wines, set midway between two distinguished regions, there was plenty to try, from Jurançon and its blanc de blanc to the west to Corbières and its reds to the northeast.

 

Most visitors, naturally, are French, mainly from Bordeaux. Piau is difficult to reach from the Spanish side, though from top runs at 2,400 metres, 300 metres below the Pic du Midi, the imposing mountain scenery is largely within a Spanish national park. Runs mostly above the treeline are not long or overly demanding, but all types of skiing and boarding are on offer, even night skiing when conditions permit.

 

For the most part, this is France skiing en famille, though the Pyrenees are known as a breeding ground of some great French champions. Historically, the women figure more prominently than the men. So, make what you will of that.

 

Piau Engaly Tourist Office tel: 33 + (0) 562 39 61 69, www.piau-engaly.com.
Altitude: 1400m - 2500m