Castet – Le Rocher à Pic de Labassère

After having walked the good few kilometres up the hill to see the village of Labassère, I was initially slightly disappointed at the lack of, well, anything of interest there really. In total, there were a small school, a fountain, a monument of some priest who discovered a spring, a church, a few houses and the Mairie. Having taken a closer look at both the fountain and the monument, and tried the gate to the church only to find it locked, I was just heading back out of the village when I spotted a little grassy pathway gently climbing up the hill between some of the village’s houses.

Although I wasn’t entirely sure whether this pathway was public or not, I decided to follow it for a while anyway just to see where it went, and so I headed off up the hill. As I progressed, the path came out behind the houses and started to wind around a steep rock. Wooden railings then also appeared on the edge of the path as there was a steep descent to one side. Now fairly sure the pathway was open to the public, I wondered what this little village that didn’t even have a shop had gone to the effort of building a pathway and wooden fencing for.

Upon reaching to top of this rock, I felt simultaneous delight at the wonderful views that had become available to me, and wonder at what was so special about the 2 metre long strech of crumbling wall which seemed to be the focus of the hill top. There was also a large stone cross near it.

I got closer, but there was no sort of information or signage for either. Although I was mildly dissatisfied, and my curiosity was certainly not assuaged, I contented myself by just sitting down and appreciating the wonderful views.

To the south were the snow capped Pyrenees mountains.

There was a view over the village and church of Labassère to the east.

To the north, a rare strech of flat land could be seen.

The west side overlooked a valley spotted with a few small cottages.

I later found out online that the rock is called Castet, and that the couple of metres of stone wall is the remains of a 13th Century fortified tower, which was used for communicating with other such towers at places like Mauvezin and Ossun by means of fire beacons.

They really could put up a sign to tell visitors this. Or maybe there is no need because the only people who go up there from the village and therefore obviously know what it is. I can’t exactly see the village being a big tourist attraction actually, so that would make sense I suppose.