La Mere Bauche

The Pyreneean valley in which the baths of Vernet are situated is not much known

to English, or indeed to any travellers. Tourists in search of good hotels and

picturesque beauty combined, do not generally extend their journeys to the Eastern

Pyrenees. They rarely get beyond Luchon; and in this they are right, as they thus

end their peregrinations at the most lovely spot among these mountains, and are as

a rule so deceived, imposed on, and bewildered by guides, innkeepers, and horse owners, at this otherwise delightful place, as to become undesirous of further

travel. Nor do invalids from distant parts frequent Vernet. People of fashion go to

the Eaux Bonnes and to Luchon, and people who are really ill to Bareges and

Cauterets. It is at these places that one meets crowds of Parisians, and the

daughters and wives of rich merchants from Bordeaux, with an admixture, now by

no means inconsiderable, of Englishmen and Englishwomen. But the Eastern

Pyrenees are still unfrequented. And probably they will remain so; for though there

are among them lovely valleys¿and of all such the valley of Vernet is perhaps the

most lovely¿they cannot compete with the mountain scenery of other tourists loved regions in Europe. At the Port de Venasquez and the Breche de Roland in the

Western Pyrenees, or rather, to speak more truly, at spots in the close vicinity of

these famous mountain entrances from France into Spain, one can make

comparisons with Switzerland, Northern Italy, the Tyrol, and Ireland, which will

not be injurious to the scenes then under view. But among the eastern mountains

this can rarely be done. The hills do not stand thickly together so as to group

themselves; the passes from one valley to another, though not wanting in altitude,

are not close pressed together with overhanging rocks, and are deficient in

grandeur as well as loveliness. And then, as a natural consequence of all this, the

hotels¿are not quite as good as they should be.