Friends of the Pyrenees Guide Service for everyone :

Looking for a special Pyrenees trekking, backpacking or hiking, camping in the wild off the beaten paths along long forgotten trails?

Unknown to foreigners and not on the maps anymore?

Ask Richard our Pyrenees Mountain leader for a hike or trek

somewhere between Val d'Aran in the West and Pic Canigou in the East, through Alt Sobira, Ariège or the Carlit massif.

These are the areas he knows as well as his trouser-pocket.

He'll take you off the beaten paths and show you more beautiful and wild parts of the mountains no books will guide you to.

Richard is an experienced European Mountain Leader.

He's fluent in English, French, German and Flemish (his mother tongue).

Backpacking and camping into the Pyrenees Guide Service Terms : 

Basic cost : 75€ per day (1 participant), +50€ a day (2nd participant), + 30€ a day (3rd participant), + 20€ a day (4th and next participants).

Max. groupsize: 9 participants.

Minimum duration : 7 days.

Membership : for legal reasons you have to become a member (membershipfee is already included) Membership conditions

Included : guiding,  hiking tents, cookers, sleeping mats.

Not included: food, sleeping bags, rucksacks can be hire at 2€ an overnight.

When staying in huts the guide's costs (board and lodging) are yours, this is usual.

Need more information? contact Richard, 

make sure to contact Richard in time (now!) to hear if he's still free for trekking or hiking in the Pyrenees the period you want. 

Hiking in the Pyrenees, Trekking in the Pyrenees, LEVELS OF DIFFICULTY:

Use the scale bellow before contacting our Pyrenees guide service. It helps you to determine your level of fitness. each hike can be designed in a way that each hike can help you improve your shape.  Mountain hikes are a like a natural keep-fit course :

in 2 weeks you can turn excess fat into lean muscle!  

You can improve strength and stamina, and also suppleness, because the hikes go through mountain terrain. 

And needless to say, your natural beauty returns.

 Our grading is as follows : 

• Walker =  novice  who would like to hike in the mountains but has little training.  He/she cannot yet read a map and would lose his/her way,
• Learner : practices some kind of sporting activity at least twice a week but has little experience of ascents and descents, walking on other than paths, crossing snowfields or screens, or orientation in the mountains,
• Hiker : has knowledge of the mountains, of walking on other than paths, crossing snowfields or screens, can navigate and knows his/her limits,
• Mountaineer : experienced all-season mountain hiker able to dig out steps with an ice-axe and to stop him-/herself  on a snow slope.

For your pleasure in safety : ask our guide service for a hike that suits your ability! What you pay includes a Friends of the Pyrenees membership fee members (click here to  contact Richard,)

During mere contemplation a natural cleansing or catharsis is set in motion.

This allows processing of as yet unprocessed experiences and finding solutions to yet unsolved problems.

Meditation process counselling is free for those who want.

No psychological or spiritual accompaniment is necessary for those who normally able to stand on their own feet (and this excursion is for those). 

Own self-critical judgment and openness and the ability to follow through to the end in any circumstances suffice. 

Being alone in the wilderness does the rest. 

It is an exciting and special experience in which one thing and another are called into question

and you get the chance to get to know the "soul" of the mountains and why you feel attracted to them.  

This kind of excursion is expressly not for those who stand on their own feet only in their thoughts and become afraid as soon as they are left to themselves for whole days' and nights'  camping in the wilderness (in total for two-thirds of the time).

Click here to contact our Pyrenees Guide service and start adventure.

more about Meditation mountain retreats

How to get to the Pyrenees mountains

The address of the house is : Le Castel , 09400 Miglos

You don't need a car if your coming for trekking, you can get easily here by train or (cheaper!) by plane. However when you're coming for holidays staying at the house you need a car: shops are in Tarascon (about 10' driving). 

• by plane : RyanAir has cheaper flights to Carcassonne. But it's difficult to get to Tarascon sur Ariège by train the same day. Toulouse Blagnac airport may be a better choice.
• renting a car have a look here car rental. Staying at our house you need a car.
• by car : drive to Toulouse. From Toulouse take the  A66 ( Toulouse , Pamiers), the N20 (Foix, Tarascon sur Ariège) and the D8 (Tarascon sur Ariège, Capoulet). One can get to Miglos from Niaux but driving along the D8 until Capoulet is easier : turn the litle road up to your left, about 1 km and there you are. Our house looks like it is on the photo below. For a detailed route description from your home to Miglos have a look here.
• by train : several night trains from Paris to Toulouse and one of them going through to Tarascon sur Ariège. At Tarascon station ask for a taxi. For train Tabels have a look at the French railways. Once you're in Tarascon sur Ari�ge phone for a taxi : 05 61 05 61 83 .
•  For information on how to get from Perpignan to Saillagouse where the Canigou-Puigmal trek starts click the Canigou Trek page 

• Please don't arrive earlier : the housekeeper needs the week-ends for cleaning and Richard for relaxing.