The Walking Pilgrim

A direct, largely offroad route from the Gállego valley to Lourdes, which requires crossing the high mountain pass of the Port du Marcadau

From the Gállego valley at Panticosa, the road/track via Balneario de Panticosa leads to the Marcadau pass. From here, the path down the Vallée du Marcadau leads to Pont d'Espagne and Cauterets, where the Voie Verte des Gaves, a railway line converted into a cycle/footpath, leads to Lourdes. See vppr.free.fr site for more details on this route, and for the alternative over the Peyre Saint Martin pass. There is also an overview map and height profile of Balneario-Pont d'Espagne section on site of Pyrénées-Orientales Amis de St Jacques

A direct, largely offroad route from the Ara valley to Lourdes, which requires crossing the high mountain pass of the Port de Boucharo near the Cirque de Gavarnie

From the Ara valley, a track leads to the Boucharo pass, aka Gavarnie pass. From here, either the road or the path can be taken to the village of Gavarnie, where a variant of the GR10 leads to Luz-St-Sauveur. From here a path leads via Viscos to Pierrefitte, where the Voie Verte des Gaves, a railway line converted into a cycle/footpath, leads to Lourdes

Somport (1632m)
site of Augustinian priory of Sta Cristina

Col des Moines (2168m)

A direct route connecting Lourdes with the Somport via the Ossau valley, this is a mountain path rather than a pilgrim route, with substantial sections over 2000m. Those not comfortable with this should use the longer route via Oloron.

1. Lourdes to the Col de Saucède (1525m) using GR101
2. to Ossau valley using GR10 via the Hourquette d'Arre (2465m)
3. to the Somport using path over the Col des Moines