Cauterets: The Hot Springs and the Pont d'Espagne
Occitanie, France
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Cauterets Spa Wanderer
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200
XP
+100 France
= 300 total
1 day
Cauterets: The Hot Springs and the Pont d'Espagne
200 + 100 XP
Cauterets takes its name from its hot springs — from the Latin for the place of hot baths, los cautarers in Gascon — and Gallo-Roman remains of bathing, including a pool, have been found here; Marguerite de Navarre's Heptaméron calls it Caulderets. It is still both a spa and a ski resort, with 829 people in 2023 against a peak of 1,989 in 1881. The road above the town stops at 1,480 metres, and from there you go on foot to the Pont d'Espagne, the stone bridge at 1,496 metres where the Gave du Marcadau and the Gave de Gaube meet, on the old way over the mountains to Spain. Where two streams and three valleys come together there are waterfalls everywhere; high society came here from the middle of the 19th century and mass tourism from the 1960s.
Required Activities
1
of 4
Take the waters at Cauterets, then walk the town looking for what the water built: the monumental 19th-century fronts of the Thermes de César, the Grand hôtel d'Angleterre and the Grand hôtel Continental. The village itself began as a cluster of huts around one pool, the bain d'en-haut, which the abbot of Saint-Savin had built between 1059 and 1078; Gaston Fébus came here in 1380 to treat his deafness.
2
of 4
Drive the D920 to where it ends for visitors at 1,480 m at the paying car park, then take the path rather than the surfaced road — it leaves right on the first bend and crosses a footbridge with the best view of the whole site — and walk up to the Pont d'Espagne; the Pountas gondola covers the same ground if you would rather not climb
3
of 4
Stand on the stone bridge at 1,496 m, where the Gave du Marcadau and the Gave de Gaube meet at the bottleneck of three valleys, and work out which water comes from which; then find the fall on the Gave de Gaube, and just above the hostelry the grave monument of the Pyreneist Alphonse Meillon. This crossing is what the name records: it was the mountain road into Spain.
4
of 4
Walk the GR10 down the narrow forested val de Jéret alongside the gave, counting the waterfalls — they are at their most violent in spring with the snowmelt — and find the Île Sarah Bernhardt in the river, the islet where the actress had a caravan installed to summer in
Take the waters at Cauterets, then walk the town looking for what the water built: the monumental 19th-century fronts of the Thermes de César, the Grand hôtel d'Angleterre and the Grand hôtel Continental. The village itself began as a cluster of huts around one pool, the bain d'en-haut, which the abbot of Saint-Savin had built between 1059 and 1078; Gaston Fébus came here in 1380 to treat his deafness.
Drive the D920 to where it ends for visitors at 1,480 m at the paying car park, then take the path rather than the surfaced road — it leaves right on the first bend and crosses a footbridge with the best view of the whole site — and walk up to the Pont d'Espagne; the Pountas gondola covers the same ground if you would rather not climb
Stand on the stone bridge at 1,496 m, where the Gave du Marcadau and the Gave de Gaube meet at the bottleneck of three valleys, and work out which water comes from which; then find the fall on the Gave de Gaube, and just above the hostelry the grave monument of the Pyreneist Alphonse Meillon. This crossing is what the name records: it was the mountain road into Spain.
Walk the GR10 down the narrow forested val de Jéret alongside the gave, counting the waterfalls — they are at their most violent in spring with the snowmelt — and find the Île Sarah Bernhardt in the river, the islet where the actress had a caravan installed to summer in
Before you go
The falls at the Pont d'Espagne are at their most spectacular in spring, when the snowmelt is running.
There is one road in, the D920 from Cauterets, and it stops at a large paying car park at 1,480 m: no vehicle goes beyond it, so budget for the parking charge and the Pountas gondola if you want it. The Pont d'Espagne is in the Pyrénées national park: dogs, drones, camping and fires are all restricted. If you carry on to the Lac de Gaube, go up by the GR10 and come down by the other path — the GR10 is rough and awkward descending — and check whether the chairlift is running, because it is seasonal.
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Challenge Location
XP Breakdown
Challenge XP
200 XP
France country bonus
+100 XP
Potential total
300 XP
Country bonus earned on completion of your first challenge in France.
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