Draw on a bank of local expertise and customise your own tailor made holiday

Walk to study your interest in the hills and mountains

Discover species endemic to the Pyrenees

Or improve your French in a ‘live’ setting with a bilingual tutor

For the last ten years we have worked with the same fifteen local leaders. All are good ‘generalists’ (the Accompagnateur de Moyen Montagne qualification is extremely rigorous and the ‘Guide de Haute Montagne’ badge takes most people seven years to achieve.) However not surprisingly, each leader also has their personal mountain passion.

Jeannot for example is a graduate in geology and gives fascinating talks on the complex geological history of this area (did you know where to find fossilised sea shells at the top of the mountains?). Mathieu is an acknowledged authority on orchids, and in June and September he leads small groups on a hunt for some of the rarest species. He also works with groups of children and adults to help them really look at what grows and lives on the mountainsides. You may come back from your day with a plaster cast of an animal imprint or a bunch of wild salad leaves and herbs to have for dinner (Mathieu is also a qualified chef). Justin is a qualified mountain leader but also a graduate in French and Spanish languages. His enthusiasm is to find ways to teach French naturally and in the contexts it occurs. His language weeks involve trips to the market to talk to the farmers (you revise your agricultural vocabulary first) as well as walks in the mountains to find appropriate ways of using the day’s keywords. One group went home knowing more French words about canoeing than most of us could manage in English! Anna can take you on a week’s drawing, painting and 3D work that will change the way you look at the mountain environment. Philippe can talk to you about how local government works in this part of France and Sascha can lead you through the ups and downs of mixing a tourist based economy with a respect for the natural environment.

While we don’t organise set weeks around any of these activities, we have run a number of very successful specialist weeks with small groups, schools, Universities and clubs. Some groups return every year. Occasionally we can take groups as small as two or three if the week is right for the activity and the appropriate leader is available. We can also mix days of these different activities led by different specialists – an option popular with younger groups. Study weeks can be mingled with activity weeks so that learning becomes integrated with action, an approach that works well with reluctant linguists and teenages for example. Walking along a hill track chatting in French to your guide is much more interesting than answering questions in a classroom.

If you are interested in learning more about our specialist activity weeks, please contact Wendy with your ideas.

Email: Pmtuk@aol.com
Telephone:(0044) (0) 1635 297209

Nature photos by Mathieu

Fitness and Walking Standard
Levels of fitness needed depend entirely on the activities selected. Walking with French weeks can be very gentle rambles or tougher hikes depending on the group. Finding mushrooms, orchids and animal tracks will require a walk into a specific site and this can take up to two hours, although the pace will be gentle with lots of stops. In the case of elderly or disabled customers, we can organise some activities (e.g. bird watching) with a minimum of walking and daily transport most of the way. Weeks with children are likely to involve lots of physical activity.

What does a Special Interest Week Cost ?
Costs on special interest weeks vary depending on the size of the group and the number of activities included. It is possible in some weeks to book just occasional days with your specialist leader rather than undertaking a whole week.

Accommodation
Accommodation could be arranged in a one, two or three star hotel, a youth hostel, mountain refuges or self catering apartment depending on the nature of the group and the type of specialist week.

Travel to the Pyrenees
There are several ways to travel to the Pyrenees. See our Travel Options pages.