The three stages in the high Pyrenees, starting Saturday, drew the attention of Johan Bruyneel, the director of Armstrong's United States Postal Service team.

Rainfall is also very variable, with very low mean values in the central areas and increasingly higher values in mountain areas, especially in the high Pyrenees.

The winter dissipated early in continuous downpours which extended into the high Pyrenees and brought a spate down the Sicoris which knocked out every bridge across it.

The cultural landscape of Madriu-Perafita-Claror Valley offers a microcosmic perspective of the way people have harvested the resources of the high Pyrenees over millennia.

The genus is named after the French botanist and explorer Louis Ramond de Carbonnières, who was among the first to explore the high Pyrenees.

Tony Milne, 10 Manuels and a Manolete, A carpark-to-peak guide to the high Pyrenees, Handmaid Books, 2013.

It goes through Montpellier, Toulouse and Oloron-Sainte-Marie before reaching the Spanish border at Col du Somport in the high Pyrenees.

Here in the broken country where France joined Spain and both were separated by the high Pyrenees, every village had a fortress on a peak, most of them seemingly called "Puigpunyent," meaning "Sharp-point Peak."

An exceptional guided wilderness hike in the high pyrenees.

During the 19th century, the high Pyrenees became more populated, fueled by strong demand for natural resources with intense forestry, farming, and fishing.