Advice on the Pyrenees please

[Chris Jackson]

Hi folks,
I'm looking to go to the eastern end of the Pyrenees this June (3rd week), very approximately in the Font Romeu area, no further west, perhaps near the Parc Naturel Régional des Pyrénées des Catalanes. We would like to do a bit of butterflying, birding, and 'not-to-strenous' walking.
Any suggestions for decent lodgings at a reasonable price (campsites with chalets or static caravans) ?
Any particular places of interest to visit, places not to be missed ?

Is anyone familiar with these places ?:
Les Angles
Llo
Saillagouse
Vallée d'Eynes
Vallée d'Err

Thanks, Chris

[Matsukaze]

Eyne is reckoned to have the highest number of bumblebee species of any location in Europe, though please don't ask me for help trying to identify them...even the British ones are bad enough, the more I learn about them the less I find I can identify them.

[Chris Jackson]

Thanks Matsu,
I'll watch out for bees then. Will keep you informed.
Cheers, Chris

[Reverdin]

Hi,
I had a couple of very pleasant weeks in Les Angles a few years back. I recall two main habitats..
1 - a lake and upland pasture where there were...
Scarce Copper
Silver Studded Blues
Amanda's Blues
Mazarine Blues
Lesser Marbled Frit
Niobe Frit
QoS Frit
Bright eyed Ringlet
Chestnut & Spanish Heath

2 - ski slopes/ high tops with ski lift access..
Common Brassy R
piedmont R
de Prunner's R
Large R
Purple edg'd Copper
Apollo

I am sure there were others but off the top of my head, the above is the best I recall

PS... I think we stayed here... v. nice people!

Pyrenean Trails
10 Impasse des Astres, 66210 Les Angles, France ‎
+33 4 68 04 37 28 ‎
pyrenean-trails.com

[Chris Jackson]

Thanks Reverdin,
I'll check the address out. I look forward to giving you some positive feedback.
Cheers, Chris

[David M]

Hi Chris,

I'm not an expert on the Pyrenees but I did spend an entire week there in late June 2012 (using Ax-les-Thermes as my base).

My report is here:

viewtopic.php?f=20&t=6345

[Pieter Vantieghem]

For France I use the following website a lot.
http://inpn.mnhn.fr/accueil/index
In the right search bar you can search on species so you can get on the species page. End of june for example is perfect to search for Erebia meolans.
http://inpn.mnhn.fr/espece/cd_nom/647125
Then click on the left side on "Données sur la répartition" giving you a map of France. By clicking on the several possibilities in the left menu your map gets filled with known data of this species. Mostly this will be on square level but with a bit of knowledge of the habitat you can find a lot of ideas of locations to visit. There are 2 minor points. These data mostly come from local initiatives so it is possible that some regions don't have a lot of data, also some data may be outdated and there is no real way to know this... It is however how I found some rare species in France...

If you would go to the Spanish side, there is a good website of the catalan butterfly monitoring scheme. On this page you can search on species or on locations. Watch out, these locations are routes that are being walked by volunteers and it doesn't give a real distribution. Some of these routes though are in the better areas and can give you an idea of where to find some species. To find the exact location of the routes can take some time, you have to compare the printscreen of the given map with googlemaps but I managed to do so when I went to Catalunya in early spring 2 years ago. The website is in Catalan but with a) a minimum of knowledge of other roman languages (French or Spanish) you can understand a lot and b) the scientific names of species are mentioned so having a location and a species is probably the most important

http://www.catalanbms.org/ca/resultats/

[Chris Jackson]

David,
Great report and smashing photos. The scenery looks fantastic. As your report indicates, the weather in the Pyrenees even in June is not 100% reliable - we'll keep our fingers crossed.
Thanks, Chris

Hi Pieter,
Thanks for the info., there's plenty there for me to go through.
Cheers, Chris