Tarbes: The Imperial Stud, the Jardin Massey and Foch's Birthplace
Occitanie, France
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200
XP
+100 France
= 300 total
1 day
Tarbes: The Imperial Stud, the Jardin Massey and Foch's Birthplace
200 + 100 XP
The stud at Tarbes was founded in 1806 under Napoleon; it bred the navarrin, the best cavalry horse in Europe, from a cross of the local breed with English blood and Arab stallions, and it is the cradle of the French Anglo-Arab. It stopped being a national stud in 2016, when the IFCE sold it and the town of Tarbes bought it, so its Empire-style buildings are now visited on set days rather than worked as a state stud. The Jardin Massey was laid out in the 19th century by the botanist Placide Massey, director of the Trianon nurseries and the Queen's kitchen garden at Versailles, who left it to his home town at his death in 1853; it holds the re-erected cloister of Saint-Sever-de-Rustan and a museum in an oriental-style building crowned by a tower for looking at the Pyrenees. Marshal Foch was born in Tarbes, and his birthplace became a museum in 1951.
Required Activities
1
of 4
On the last weekend of the month, or on a booked guided round, walk the Empire-style courtyards of the haras and go into two buildings in particular: the Maison du Cheval of 1820, built as a riding school and later turned into stables, and the Sellerie d'Honneur of 1823, where the period harness and saddles still hang on the walls
2
of 4
Walk the arcades of the cloister brought here from the abbey of Saint-Sever-de-Rustan and look along the west gallery for the newer stone: a chestnut came down on it in the storm of March 2020 and took out six arcades and a pier, rebuilt between 2023 and 2024 with only the broken stones replaced. Then find the trees in the garden that go back to 1830, older than the cloister's time on this site
3
of 4
In the house where Foch was born — free to go into — find the galerie bigourdane, the wooden gallery that is the local building habit, and the carved staircase, then stand on the original parquet and follow his road from this bourgeois Tarbes house to the Allied command of 1918
4
of 4
Find Edmond Desca's L'Ouragan standing in front of the Musée Massey — the statue a conservative petition tried to get removed, and that one of the garden's keepers put a pair of underpants on — then go into the oriental-style museum behind it, built by the Tarbes architect Jean-Jacques Latour with a tower on top meant for looking at the Pyrenees, and work through the hussar collection inside
On the last weekend of the month, or on a booked guided round, walk the Empire-style courtyards of the haras and go into two buildings in particular: the Maison du Cheval of 1820, built as a riding school and later turned into stables, and the Sellerie d'Honneur of 1823, where the period harness and saddles still hang on the walls
Walk the arcades of the cloister brought here from the abbey of Saint-Sever-de-Rustan and look along the west gallery for the newer stone: a chestnut came down on it in the storm of March 2020 and took out six arcades and a pier, rebuilt between 2023 and 2024 with only the broken stones replaced. Then find the trees in the garden that go back to 1830, older than the cloister's time on this site
In the house where Foch was born — free to go into — find the galerie bigourdane, the wooden gallery that is the local building habit, and the carved staircase, then stand on the original parquet and follow his road from this bourgeois Tarbes house to the Allied command of 1918
Find Edmond Desca's L'Ouragan standing in front of the Musée Massey — the statue a conservative petition tried to get removed, and that one of the garden's keepers put a pair of underpants on — then go into the oriental-style museum behind it, built by the Tarbes architect Jean-Jacques Latour with a tower on top meant for looking at the Pyrenees, and work through the hussar collection inside
Before you go
Plan this one round the haras. It is free to walk into only on the last Saturday and Sunday of the month, 2 to 6 in the afternoon (7 in summer); at other times you need to book a guided visit, Wednesday to Sunday at 10.30 or 2.30, about 7 euros adult and 2 for a child of 3 to 12. The Foch house is the opposite: Monday to Friday, 9.30 to 12 and 2 to 5, shut at the weekend, free. The Musée Massey opens Tuesday to Sunday — closed Mondays, and on 25 December, 1 January and 1 May. The best single day is a Wednesday to Friday with the haras booked; the garden and the cloister are free and open whatever else is shut.
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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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