The Tourmalet pass
Your campsite near Col du Tourmalet
Known as the toughest stage of the Tour de France, the Col du Tourmalet is the highest in the Pyrenees at 2115m. Located below the Pic du Midi and the Pic de l’Espade, it links the Gave de Pau valley and the Adour river. Discover this mythical Pyrenean pass near your Le Ruisseau campsite.
The Tourmalet Pass, a singular history
Used since time immemorial by shepherds, pilgrims and merchants, the pass is mentioned in the 10th century when the Countess of Bigorre crossed it to collect taxes in Barèges.
But it was in the 17th century that it gained prestige, when Madame de Maintenon, accompanied by the Duc du Maine, used it to take the waters at Barèges.
In fact, it was Madame de Maintenon who, in her letters, referred to “barèges” as the name of the town formerly known as “les bains”. The road to the thermal baths is open!
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Some time later, Louis XIV’s Minister of State also came to Barèges to treat a fractured leg. On his return to Versailles, he obtained funds for the first improvements, military installations and greater comfort for the thermal baths.
This was an opportunity to improve access by building a path, and then to construct a road that became Route Nationale 618, which lasted until the 1970s, when it was decommissioned. An essential stop-off on the Pyrenean pass route.
The Col du Tourmalet, a Tour de France legend
In 1902, the Touring Club de France organized the first bicycle race, covering 215km and including two climbs of the pass. This association, whose aim is “the development of tourism in all its forms, both by the facilities it provides for its members and by the preservation of everything that constitutes the picturesque or artistic interest of travel”, creates the event.
A few years later, in 1910, the pass became a reference stage in the Tour de France, which used it 78 times.
This is the pass of all exploits, like that of Eugène Christophe who, having broken his fork, walked 14 km before reaching Sainte-Marie-de-Campan and repairing his bike himself at the village forge!
