Bradshaw's Companion to the Continent Author:George Bradshaw Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. PYRENEAN BATH8-BAGNERES DE LDCHON-BAGNERES DE BIGORRE—VALE OF ARGELE8-BAREGES-ST. SAUVEUR— GAVARNIE CAUTERETS. The road from Toulouse to the mi... more »neral springs of the Pyrenees passes through a beautiful and cultivated country, interspersed with villages and hamlets. At St. Gaudens (eighteen hours from Toulouse) two roads diverge. By following the eastern one, a valley is entered, which becomes narrower and less cultivated in advancing, and, after a four hours' drive, the traveller finds himself at Bagneres de Luchon, which is situate immediately " sotto igran monti Pirenei" in a valley of the brightest verdure, watered by the Pique and other streams, and above which the Maladetta, the highest mountain of the range, raises its snow-capped peak. The town contains a population of two thousand inhabitants, and is built in the form of a triangle: each apex terminating in an avenue of trees. The lime avenue leads to the bath establishment, which (like other French baths, is under the superintendence of government) lies at the foot of a hill, whence the water issues, and passes immediately into the baths. The springs are hot and strongly sulphurous, and are among the most efficacious in the diseases for which this class of mineralwaters is indicated. Their temperature varies from 26 to 52 degrees R. The environs of Bagneres de Luchon are highly romantic, and contain many interesting points, to which agreeable excursions may be made. The lakes of Oo and Scculejo are among the spots most frequently visited; and the lover of solitude, who delights to " Slowly traee the forest's shady scene, Where things which own not man's dominion dwell, And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been," may find ample scope for the indulgence of his taste; but, notwithstanding its scenic...« less