Pyrénées Magazine No. 1, January–February 1989

Pyrénées Magazine No. 1, January–February 1989

p11 HENRY RUSSELL
Tenant of the Vignemale

p14 LES MAQUIGNONS ET LES MOUTONS
The end of an old fable.

p16 L'OBSERVATOIRE DU PIC DU MIDI
Heads in the stars and feet in the snow, the researchers at the Pic du Midi observatory scan the sky as if to read the future there: dark threats hang over their fabulous instrument.

p28 NATURE BASQUE
It took a Basque, madly in love with his homeland, to lead us into the depths of these dizzying canyons, extravagant and Amazonian... Follow Claude Dendaletche into the heart of the broken hills! (Kakouéta, Arphidia, Holzarté and Uhaitxar gorges, etc.)

p36 DESMAN : LE RAT-TROMPETTE
Why did Bernard Richard devote fifteen years of his life as a CNRS researcher to studying the desman? Listen to him: he unravels the mysteries of the “trumpet rat”.

p46 NORBERT CASTERET : L'HOMME DES CAVERNES
Jacques Jolfre is Norbert Casteret's spiritual son: for years, he explored chasms, caves and crevasses alongside him. Jacques Jolfre recounts the exploits of the famous caver, but also the man's great qualities.

p54 PAU
It is hard to stroll through Pau without coming across, here and there, the delicate ghosts of elderly ladies and the distinguished figures of the gentlemen of the Cercle anglais. Whatever the future holds, it will never forget them.

p66 HISTOIRE : LES PASSEURS DES PORTES DE LA LIBERTE
For years, the historian Emilienne Eychenne has been interviewing witnesses. Her mind is made up: the escape guides were not all scoundrels. Nor were they all saints... But in the 1940s, one and all, they held the keys to the gates of freedom...

p76 ARTS : LE PRIEURE DE SERRABONE
For Joseph Ribas, Serrabone, a masterpiece of Romanesque art, can only be understood if you approach it slowly: on foot. Follow his path, under the sun: it is the path of the heart and the soul...

p86 SPORTS ET LOISIRS : LE SKI DE RANDONNEE
You grab the drag lift and ski down. You grab it again and ski down again. Fine. But in these free, wild mountains, you can also take your skis off the beaten track, far from the pistes. Here, you have to dare to try the other kind of skiing! (article by Jean-Louis Hourcadette)

p98 DIVERS
Christian Izard, one of the finest interpreters of the Roussillon area.
Didier Lamotte, Le Phoebus restaurant, in Foix.
Manu Sanchez, eel bourride just as they make it in Fitou.

p100 FLORE : SOUS LA NEIGE, LA VIE SE PREPARE
Koch's gentian, spring anemone, buttercup, crocus, soldanella...