Who Are We ?
In 1984 a small walking holiday company was created, based in the beautiful Val d’Azun in the heart of the French Pyrenees. This company, named « La Balaguère » after the warm breeze that blows upwards from the Sahara to the Pyrenees, offered guided walking trips led by a small group of friends with a huge passion for the mountains.
Little by little La Balaguère expanded and more than 35 years later we help over 13,000 people every year enjoy walking and cycling holidays in the Pyrenees and further afield, to the most unspoilt areas of the world.
In 2018 we launched a new and exciting project. Purely Pyrenees is the English language branch of our business, offering self-guided and guided trips, walking and cycling from Spring to Autumn and snowshoeing in the Winter. Using our decades of experience we created a new range of holidays designed for English speakers who come, maybe for the first time, to experience the best the Pyrenees has to offer. Our focus is always to provide highlights, iconic places to visit, wonderful itineraries, authentic hotels and, of course, tremendous cuisine.
Purely Pyrenees and La Balaguère are now owned by the UCPA (Union des Centres Sportifs de Plein Air) which is a non-profit organisation in France that specialises in making outdoor sports holidays available for all. We are still based where we have always been, in the Pyrenean village of Arrens-Marsous.
We are very proud of our Pyrenean chain and of the knowledge that we have of it, amassed over years of providing guided and self-guided holidays. You can be sure that if you travel with us we will do everything we can to make sure you have a wonderful trip.
Not far from Lourdes, yet a thousand miles away deep in the tranquil, unspoilt and welcoming heart of the Pyrenean foothills lies the Azun valley. Its wide, green valley bottom is lightly sprinkled with farmhouses and small villages, its hillsides with oak, chestnut and pine woods, its higher slopes with wildflower filled Alpine style meadows, while its peaks are the domain of snow and 22 species of birds of prey. Its warm, welcoming and sunny - and great for walking. Each day you have a choice of routes as comfortable or challenging as you like, and each evening you return to comfortable, high quality, authentic chambres d'hotes. This is the real France, the real Pyrenees. It awaits you.
The website full of the best information about our favorite country, Complete France is running a free to enter competiton to celebrate it's 30th birthday.
In conjunction with Purely Pyrenees they are offering a break in the Val d'Azun for the lucky winner and a guest, go on, throw your hat into the ring !
Closing date : 19th November 2019
Good luck!
For all the details about the holiday on offer The Get-a-way-from-it all Pyrenean Break FP2PUVA
For details of all our walking holidays