From the Etigny paths, the mountains of Pic de Sauvegarde (2,738 m) and Pic de la Mine (2,704 m) are all you can see. Their haughty beauty dominates Bagnères-de-Luchon – "the queen of the Pyrénées" – on the border with the Haute-Garonne, in southwestern France, where this long avenue of lime trees seems designed to enhance the view of the border ridge's peaks. This is because Luchon (Bagnères is rarely used) is, above all, the city of Pyreneanism (an artistic and literary movement born in the 18^th century and linked to the conquest of the Pyrénées). Just look at Count Henry Russel's autobiographical account, Souvenirs d'un Montagnard ("Memories of a Mountaineer"), which is particularly effusive in praise when he talks about this mountain pass between France and Spain: "One could live 20 years on this magnificent site, without ever tiring of looking at the godforsaken channel unfolding to the south."

The site referred to by this renowned Pyrenean specialist is the Port de Venasque, named after the first village (Benasque) on the Spanish side. It's a passageway bored into the rock at a height of 2,444 meters, between the Pic de la Mine and the Pic de Sauvegarde, facilitating trade between the populations of Luchon and Benasque for over six centuries.

From the opening built by Napoleon's armies – the cobblestones on the path leading up to the pass still bear witness to the colossal work – the panorama is breathtaking, with the Maladeta (curse) massif and the peak of Aneto (3,404 m) seemingly just around the corner.

The best way to start a two-day escape to the Port de Venasque is certainly by walking up the Allées d'Etigny, like the aristocrats, when they used to rush into the port, on foot, horseback or sedan chair to marvel at the panorama, or, when they set out to conquer the Néthou (French name for the Aneto), with the Garonne river rising at its foot.

In the mid-19^th century, Luchon was a fashionable spa town where Gustave Flaubert and George Sand came to stay. Large villas and hotels were built, rivaling one other in style. A number remain from these romantic times, including the Villa Julia, where the poet Edmond Rostand wrote Les Musardises ("Musings"), the Grand Hôtel de Superbagnères and the Thermal Baths Chambert, named after the architect Edmond Chambert, who also built the Spont chalets on the Allées d'Etigny, in a more Swiss than Pyrenean style.

This is one curiosity among many others. You only have to stroll through the narrow streets to observe the architectural extravagance and guess at the flamboyant past, even if most hotels have been converted into residences or abandoned. This is what makes Luchon so attractive and unique, a town with an old-fashioned charm, intimately linked to the grandiose setting of the surrounding mountains and the history of the Port de Venasque.

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