Vielha, capital of era Val d’Aran

Yesterday, we visited Vielha, the valley capital about a 15 min drive from our campsite.

The small town was very busy yesterday with the finish line of the Trail Vielha Molières 2025 in the centre. This was a trail running event featuring 2 different races, the Marathon Molières (42km +4200m elevation gain) and the Montpius Skyrace (24km +1800m elevation gain). We weren’t there to participate but we did watch and cheer some of those approaching the finish line!

Vielha’s a very pretty place, with lots of old buildings, and views of the surrounding mountains often appearing behind.

We enjoyed our picnic lunch by the confluence of the Garona and Nere rivers, just in time before a shower arrived. The forecast was for rain and thunderstorms all day but we got off very lightly with few heavy showers until later in the evening. Our weather was v mild compared with the rest of Catalunya, most of which was under a red alert for serious flooding and v heavy rain.

As we wandered around the town, we found a marker post for the Camino de Santiago route from St Bernard de Comenge and through the Aran valley to Vielha (the Aran Pirineus Way of Saint James), where the path turns south to cross the mountains, to join the Catalan Way of St James or Camí de Sant Jaume (which starts in Barcelona or Montserrat), which in turn meets the Camino Frances in Zaragoza.

We did some food shopping during the siesta break before returning to visit the Musèu dera Val d'Aran, which reopened at 5pm.

This museum features the history of the valley and its people from prehistoric times onwards. Although the displays were labelled in Aranese, Catalan and Spanish, we were provided with a printed copy of most of the main panels in English and anything else was subjected to Google Translate!

The museum provided a fascinating glimpse into the lives and history of this initially long fought over strategic location, on the border between various provinces and latterly Spain and France. Crop and livestock farming were the main economic activity for centuries but then forestry and mining, and especially from the 19th century onwards, tourism took over - first winter sports but more recently also in the summer.

In the evening, not long after returning to the campsite we (and everyone else on the site) received 2 government weather alerts on our phones - oddly, the first telling us (in Spanish and Catalan) not to leave our homes or go anywhere near rivers or streams, immediately followed by a second (in Spanish and English) telling us that the threat level had now reduced. I suspect (and hope) other parts of Catalunya subject to the red alert may have received the first message much earlier in the day. Aran was only under a yellow warning, and the immediately neighbouring counties had amber warnings.

We finished the day with Hannah cooking us a delicious sausage and vegetable stew.Les mer