• Border Park Stretching along the mountainous border with Spain, Pyrénées National Park includes six distinct alpine valleys and elevations that soar from a low of 3,478 feet (1,060 meters) to 10,820 feet (3,298 meters) at the summit of Vignemale. Mont Perdu (10,990 feet/3,350 meters) anchors an enormous massif, which is marked by three major cirques on the French (northern) side.
• Pyrenean Desman The park's most intriguing inhabitant is a close relative of the mole called the Pyrenean desman. This patchwork creature has a mole-like body, trunk-like nose, and webbed feet. It lives in these mountains, and almost nowhere else, feeding on insect larvae and small shellfish along the banks of crystal streams.
• Little Train One Pyrénées attraction not to be missed is the unique “tiny” railway. This precipitous narrow-gauge journey, the start of which is reached by cable car, runs along what’s billed as Europe’s highest track. The Petit Train d'Artouste was originally built to provide worker access during construction of massive hydroelectric dams during the 1920s. Today the train fills with tourists each summer and travels an unforgettable six-mile (ten-kilometer) stretch from the peak of La Sagette to Artouste Lake—all at a dizzying altitude of 6,562 feet (2,000 meters).
• Pastoral Partners While the park’s central area is largely uninhabited, an ancient, pastoral way of mountain life endures in a “partnership zone” where some 40,000 people live in 86 villages. Here shepherds and their charges frequent upland pastures and mountain hamlets perch comfortably between dizzying heights and farm fields. Such communities were once widespread in Europe’s mountain regions but are now found in relatively few places—the Pyrénées quite notable among them.
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