When to go to Béarn?
→ The detailed month-by-month page, with real weather records
Best time: June to September
At a glance
Why go to Béarn?
The Béarn is the part of south-west France that nobody has yet pigeonholed. Less famous than the neighbouring Basque Country, it shares its mild climate and love of good food, but adds two genuine high-mountain valleys, Ossau and Aspe, which climb towards Spain via Tour de France passes, lakes at 1,500 metres and peaks topping 2,800 metres.
Pau, its capital, keeps the Belle Époque villas of its days as a winter resort favoured by the British, one of the finest balconies in France over the Pyrenees and the castle where Henri IV was born. It is a destination for walkers and cyclists, who will find trails here that are quieter than in the Hautes-Pyrénées; for families, thanks to the little Artouste train, the baths at Salies and the summer pasture farms open in season; and for food lovers, between garbure, Ossau-Iraty sheep's cheese, poule au pot and Jurançon wine.
Beach lovers should move on, as the coast is an hour away; those who like lively mid-sized towns, bastides and markets will be well served.
Map of Béarn: what is where?
The map shows the 6 places covered in this guide, to picture the distances and plan your route.
- Château de Pau
- Lac de Bious-Artigues
- Artouste train
- Cirque de Lescun
- Oloron-Sainte-Marie
- Salies-de-Béarn
How much does a trip to Béarn cost?
| Style | Per day | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Backpacker | €55-80 per day per person | gîte or campsite, garbure at a country inn, free hikes and a paid site every other day. |
| Comfort | €110-160 | 3-star hotel in Pau or in the valleys, regional restaurants, the Artouste train, the castle, the Salies baths. |
| Premium | €220 and up | grand hotel in Pau or a Jurançon manor house, gourmet restaurants, a private mountain guide for the day. Cash remains useful for summer pasture cheeses and some markets. |
Is Béarn safe?
The Béarn mountains are accessible but serious: afternoon thunderstorms are frequent in summer, snowfields linger until June on trails above 2,000 metres and mist rises quickly from the valleys. Set off early, with a map, water and a warm layer, and tell your accommodation your route. Livestock guardian dogs, the patous, are numerous on the summer pastures: walk around the flocks calmly, without running or petting them. Ticks are present below 1,500 metres, so check yourself in the evening. In towns and villages, no particular precautions are needed.
What to see and do in Béarn
- Château de Pau
- Boulevard des Pyrénées
- Artouste little train
- Lac de Bious-Artigues
- Cirque de Lescun
- Salies-de-Béarn
- Jurançon vineyards
- Col d'Aubisque
Château de Pau
On its spur above the river, the castle was built in the 11th century and then strengthened by Gaston Fébus, Count of Foix and Viscount of Béarn, whose 33-metre brick tower still dominates the courtyard. This is where Henri of Navarre, the future Henri IV, was born in 1553, and you are shown his bedchamber and the tortoiseshell said to have served as his cradle. Louis-Philippe and then Napoleon III turned the fortress into a palace, and the national museum holds one of the richest collections of Gobelins tapestries in France, hung in a series of interconnecting rooms. The visit ends on the terraces and in the park, free to enter, which slopes down to the river. The castle quarter, with its cobbled streets and 17th-century houses, is the oldest part of town.
Lac de Bious-Artigues
At 1,416 metres, at the end of the road climbing up from Gabas, this reservoir built in the 1950s has become the gateway to the upper Ossau valley and the Pyrenees National Park. The Pic du Midi d'Ossau, a dark 2,884-metre fang of rock born of an ancient volcano, is reflected in the water early in the morning, creating one of the most reproduced images of the French Pyrenees. From the shore, trails lead to the Ayous lakes, a four- to five-hour loop linking four lakes up to the Ayous refuge at 1,980 metres, and to the Col de Peyreget for the fittest. The summer pastures are still worked: sheep, cows and horses graze the plateaus and shepherds sell their cheese from their huts. The site is very busy in summer, calm and colourful in September-October.
Artouste little train
From the Lac de Fabrèges, a gondola climbs to La Sagette station, where you board the open carriages of the Artouste train. Built in 1920 to carry equipment for the dam, it runs on a 500-millimetre-gauge track for ten kilometres along the mountainside, above the Soussouéou valley, passes through the Bear Tunnel and reaches the Lac d'Artouste after about fifty minutes. It is the highest tourist railway line in Europe, owned by the dam operator and run by the ski resort. Children love it, and so do parents; you can extend the trip with a walk to the Arrémoulit refuge or walk back down to Fabrèges. Closed in winter, the site operates from May to early October.
Cirque de Lescun
Lescun is the highest village in the Aspe valley, at 900 metres, set in the middle of a cirque of meadows overlooked by limestone walls often compared to the Dolomites: the Pic d'Anie at 2,504 metres, the Billare, the Aiguilles d'Ansabère. The village has kept its church, its stone farmhouses and a handful of inns, and still lives from sheep farming, whose milk goes into Ossau-Iraty cheese. Trails lead off to the Lac de Lhurs, the Ansabère hut or the Labérouat refuge, and the viewpoint above the village gives you the whole cirque in twenty minutes. The Aspe valley below is crossed by the Way of St James from the Col du Somport and guarded by the Fort du Portalet, a state prison under Vichy. This is the wildest Béarn, where the bear has returned.
Oloron-Sainte-Marie
At the confluence of the Aspe and Ossau rivers, Oloron is the historic capital of the Haut-Béarn, a town of 10,000 people that made its fortune from textiles and the beret, still made here. Its Sainte-Marie cathedral, UNESCO-listed as part of the Ways of St James, has a 12th-century Romanesque doorway beneath its porch carved in Pyrenean marble, with the twenty-four elders of the Apocalypse, a Christ in Majesty and scenes of daily life: salmon fishermen, a butcher, a cooper. The Sainte-Croix quarter on its hill keeps a Romanesque church and medieval houses, and the town thrives on its markets and chocolatiers. It is the logical base for exploring Aspe, Ossau and the vineyards, thirty minutes from Pau.
Salies-de-Béarn
This small spa town in the Béarn des Gaves grew up around a saltwater spring ten times more concentrated than the sea, worked since the Bronze Age and managed since 1587 by the town's families, who shared out the water every morning. Salies salt still cures Bayonne ham, and you can visit the Museum of Salt and Béarn Traditions in a half-timbered house in the centre. The baths, opened in 1857 and rebuilt in Moorish style in 1893, offer pools where you float effortlessly, a spa and cures for rheumatism and gynaecological conditions. The old centre, with its wooden-balconied houses leaning over the Saleys and its Place du Bayaà, is one of the most charming in the Béarn. A few kilometres away, Sauveterre-de-Béarn and Navarrenx complete a day of fortified villages.
How many days, and which itinerary?
Three days are enough for Pau, one valley and a day of villages; five days let you do both valleys, Ossau and Aspe, with a proper hike; a week adds the Béarn des Gaves, Salies, Sauveterre and Navarrenx, and the Jurançon vineyards without rushing.
🗺️ Day-by-day itinerary · 📓 Free printable Béarn guide (PDF) · 🌍 All of France
weekend in Pau and the Ossau valley
Saturday morning, the Château de Pau and the Boulevard des Pyrénées, lunch at the covered market, afternoon in the Jurançon vineyards with a tasting at La Chapelle-de-Rousse; Sunday, drive to Laruns, walk around the Lac de Bious-Artigues facing the Pic du Midi d'Ossau, return via Gabas and its cheese.
five days between the two valleys
day 1 Pau, the castle, the boulevard and the castle quarter; day 2 the Artouste little train from Fabrèges and a paddle in the Lac d'Artouste; day 3 the Ayous lakes from Bious-Artigues, five hours' walking; day 4 the Aspe valley, Oloron in the morning, the Cirque de Lescun in the afternoon and a night in the village; day 5 the Col d'Aubisque by car or bike, the Corniche du Litor and back to Pau.
a full week
days 1 and 2 Pau and Jurançon; day 3 Artouste; day 4 Bious-Artigues and the Ayous lakes; day 5 Oloron and Lescun; day 6 the Béarn des Gaves, Salies-de-Béarn in the morning with a floating bath, Sauveterre and Navarrenx in the afternoon; day 7 the Col d'Aubisque and Gourette, or a rest day at the Eaux-Bonnes thermal baths.
Getting there and getting around
The TGV takes about 4h20 between Paris and Pau, and Pau-Pyrénées airport has daily flights from Paris and Lyon. By car from Bordeaux or Toulouse, allow 2h on the A65 or A64.
Once there, a car is almost essential for the valleys: regional coaches link Pau with Laruns and with Oloron then Bedous, and the Pau-Oloron-Bedous train runs several times a day, but the lakes, Artouste and Lescun can only be reached by road. In summer, the Laruns resort runs shuttles to Bious-Artigues and Fabrèges on certain days.
The bike is king on the mountain passes, with rentals in Laruns and Pau.
Where to stay in Béarn?
Budget: walkers' gîtes and B&Bs in Lescun, Laruns or Bedous, often with a shared evening meal, at €60-75 for a double; riverside campsites in Laruns or the Aspe valley at €20-30 a pitch. In Pau, the small hotels in the centre charge around €60-80.
Comfort: 3- and 4-star hotels in Pau, near the Boulevard des Pyrénées or the Palais Beaumont, at €100-160, and renovated mountain hotels in Laruns, Eaux-Bonnes or Oloron. The Béarn houses converted into B&Bs around Salies and Jurançon offer the best balance of charm and price.
Our pick: a manor house in the Jurançon vineyards, with the Pyrenees at the end of the garden, or one of Pau's two great historic hotels for the view when you wake up. In the valleys, a night at the Ayous refuge, at 1,980 metres, remains the most powerful experience; book as soon as reservations open in spring.
Our places to stay, stop by stop, at three budgets →
What to eat in Béarn?
Garbure, a thick soup of cabbage, beans and confit, is served everywhere for €10-14 and makes a meal in itself; Henri IV's poule au pot, stuffed and poached, remains the Sunday dish of country inns. Ossau-Iraty sheep's cheese, an AOP shared with the Basque Country, can be bought straight from the summer pasture huts or at the Laruns and Oloron markets, for around €20-25 a kilo.
Jurançon goes with foie gras and desserts, Madiran, a full-bodied red from the north of the Béarn, with meat, and Pacherenc-du-Vic-Bilh with everything. Pau's covered market, rebuilt in 2019, is the best place to taste the whole region in a single morning, with counters where you can have lunch standing up.
The Laruns Cheese Festival in early October and the Nay market on Tuesdays are worth the detour.
Entry requirements
Schengen area: an ID card or passport for EU citizens, 90 days visa-free for UK, US, Canadian and Australian passports.
Rules change: check your own government's travel advice before you go.
Frequently asked questions about Béarn
When is the best time to visit the Béarn?
From June to September for the mountains, when the passes are open and the trails clear of snow; September and early October offer the finest light, with the summer pastures still in use. Pau and the Béarn des Gaves can be visited year-round, with an early spring and a mild autumn. The Artouste little train only runs from May to early October.
How much does the Artouste little train cost?
Allow about €28 per adult for the gondola and the train, with a family pack at €88 for two adults and two children. Under-4s travel free on a lap. Booking a time slot online is strongly recommended in summer.
Can you visit the Béarn without a car?
Pau can be explored on foot, and the Pau-Oloron-Bedous train and regional coaches get you to the valleys. But the lakes, Artouste, Lescun and the Col d'Aubisque require a car or a bike, apart from occasional summer shuttles from Laruns.
What can you see in Pau in a day?
The castle and its national museum in the morning, the covered market for lunch, then the Boulevard des Pyrénées, the funicular and the Parc Beaumont. If the sky is clear, the view of the mountain range from the boulevard alone justifies the trip.
What is an easy hike in the Ossau valley?
The walk around the Lac de Bious-Artigues takes an hour on a flat path; the first of the Ayous lakes, Lac Roumassot, is reached in 1h15 of steady climbing. For children, the Artouste train followed by the walk to the lake makes a lovely half-day.
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