From Niaux, the road continues along the valley bottom, beneath the romantically pinnacled ruins of the Château of Miglos (unrestricted access), to Vicdessos and Auzat, the latter with an unsightly aluminium works. From Vicdessos, a really stunning route – the D18 – climbs the valley of the Suc, tunnelling through trees, past abandoned barns and occasional cottages in lush meadows, by waterfalls and streams, to the pass at the Port de Lers (1517m). On the far side, herds of grey cows graze the alpine meadows down to the Étang de Lers. Then the road climbs again to another col overlooking the head of the valley of the little River Garbet. Below, the steep slopes are luxuriant with beech, while directly south you look into a high-walled crenellated cirque formed by the Pic Rouge de Bassiès and the Pic des Trois Comtes above the Étang de Garbet, where the heights are underlined by wedges of snow lying beneath the sheerest faces. This is the beginning of the Pays de Couserans, one of the poorest, least developed and most depopulated regions of the Pyrenees. Its villages, Aulus-les-Bains in particular, were once renowned for their bear-trainers, who, driven by poverty, toured the lowland towns with their performing beasts.
Pages in section ‘Into the Couserans’: Aulus-les-Bains, St-Girons, St-Lizier.
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