The French Pyrenees in 3 days

An hour's easy walk from the village to a 1,500-metre limestone amphitheatre and its Grande Cascade, a UNESCO site shared with Spain's Monte Perdido.

Above Cauterets, waterfalls crash below a stone bridge, and a gondola and chairlift lead close to Lac de Gaube, beneath the 3,298-metre Vignemale.

At 2,115 metres, the Tour de France's most-crossed pass, climbed in 17 km of hairpins from Sainte-Marie-de-Campan to the steel Giant statue.

Two cable cars rise from La Mongie to 2,877 metres and a working observatory whose Moon maps were used for the Apollo missions.

One of France's oldest nature reserves, created in 1935: polished granite, mountain pines, more than seventy lakes and easy walks like the Laquettes trail.

Millions come each year to the Massabielle grotto, where Bernadette Soubirous reported apparitions in 1858; stay for the evening torchlight procession.