Travel
The Pyrenees and Spain
THE right time of the year for the average Englishman of modest desires and moeerate purse is just n3w beginning in the Pyrenees. Certainly May and early June are too early for the genuine mormtaineerinz, enthusiast ; some of the very highest passes may not be clear of snow until the end of June. An I then July and August are the "high season" of the Pyrr n ees, when the great international hotels will be open an] when the recognized holiday places on the French side will be crowded and the tan Is will be playing. So towns like Cautercts an] 1 u:hten will not now in May and June be at their gayest. But they will be very pleasant indeed for the holiday-maker able to get away so early.
One would probably get there on the direct Paris-Bordeaux- Dax route. Leaving Victoria any morning at 11, one would reach the Pyrenean foothill towns by breakfast-time next day. With the general world-fall of money, those trains nowadays carry 2nd-class sleepers ; even the proud Sud- Express has its 2nd-Pullmans. Or, of course, there is the route to Cerbere at the Eastern end of the Pyrenees. -And then one might consider the two new lines which tunnel right through the middle of the great range. There is the line by Toulouse, which gets into Spain by La Tour de Carol and Puigeerda, and anyone- travelling that way from Paris might care to break the journey near Brive and go and look at Rocamadour. Or one might come round by Pau and change on to the other Trans-Pyrenean line which runs through the Carerane Tunnel.
The Route des Pyrenees does not start till late June. Those arc the motor-coaches of the Midi Railway, and they run from Biarritz both to Cerbere and to Carcassonne, three times a week each way and taking seven and six days respectively over the trip, with nightly hotel accommodation included and arranged. But even in May or early June the traveller can see plenty. He has only to pick his head- quarters and then trite as many excursions as he wishes ; on at least the French side there are all sorts of 'buses which ply commercially through the foothill towns all the year round. He can settle down at some such place as .Bagneres de Bigorre and enjoy a little mild gambling at the casino and stare at the mountains from a distance, or he can get much further up in the actual heights and walk or ramble at his will. And up to at least the end of June every French hotel except the great international houses will be anxious to welcome him at out-of-season prices.
On the Spanish side there are not nearly so many hotels of English standards. The holiday-making Spaniard prefers the Cantabrian Mountains where he can get sea as well. The Spanish Pyrenees have an area far greater than the French, and Spanish accommodation is not so well developed. Even in August, when a road on the French side would be crowded with tourists, the passes on the Spanish side will be empty but for an occasional peasant. But there are Spanish. hotels and surprisingly good ones ; and there are resorts like Panti- cosa. And if any reader is wondering about the language, then the simplest answer would seem to be to quote my own experience. I can speak French, rather slowly, and very badly ; but I can speak it. I can speak no Spanish at all, and what is more I do not at 50 intend to try to learn any. But I have been in Jaca and I managed quite easily. There is a hotel there good tripugh for all reasonable wants. Really the country that we call Spain is about five different Spains, and so the Englishman would probably not in May or June be visiting Andalusia or the South. It would be rather hot ; winter and early spring are its seasons. But late spring or early summer would be quite all right for the North or the Atlantic Coast. Nor need the visit be expensive. There is, for instance, San Sebastian, and in the old days its "high season" when the Court was therc. made it no holiday town for a light pocket. Today there is no Court and things are different. 'Spain has had its troubles, and its tourist people are extremely anxious to rehabilitate its reputation with the foreigner. The visitor, of course, to all but the big international houses will have to put up with Spanish ways. So, for instance, he may not get his rata or dinner until nine at night ; but when it does come it will be a very good-'dinner indeed. Frwther- more, in all except the very big hotels the visitor will be able to live for about 10s. a day. And if he has doubts about taking the plunge into an unknown Spain, then he might begin by taking it very gently. He could 'atop at Hendaye- Plage on the French side of the frontier and try the electric train-train which runs every half-hour to San Sebastian. Incidentally, he had better not forget his passport. The exact fares depend, of course, upon the route taken, but from London to Hendaye a return ticket costs roughly 112 10s. first or £9 second ; that might form a base for reckon- ing out the cost of the holiday; On 'the Spanish Railways there is a kilometric ticket of so many tourist miles 'for so
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