ESSENTIALS

All the activities described can be arranged by The Adventure Creators (adventurecreators.com), a tour operator founded by a British woman called Penny Walker who lives locally. The Heart of the Pyrenees Family Adventure costs from €545 (£470) per person for a seven-night stay (excluding travel). The package includes accommodation – ranging from wood-clad chalets on the only five-star rated campsite in France to B&Bs, four-star hotels, or selfcatering properties in traditional mountain hamlets – and an itinerary tailor-made for the needs of your family, focusing on pastoral, active and foodie activities.

Getting there

The beauty of a trip to the Pyrenees is that the “getting there” can be part of the adventure. Take a crossChannel ferry and drive through France, breaking the journey with a stopover in the Loire Valley en route. DFDS (dfds.com) offers regular crossings to Calais. The drive from Calais to the central Pyrenees takes around 12 hours.

Alternatively, Brittany Ferries (brittany-ferries.co. uk) runs overnight sailings from Portsmouth to Bilbao, Spain, after which it’s a four-hour drive to the

Pyrenees. If you prefer the train, take the Eurostar (eurostar.com) to Paris and then a sleeper to Toulouse, where you can pick up a hire car.

Flights are also available. Both British Airways (ba. com) and easyJet (easyjet. com) fly to Toulouse in 90 minutes. From there it’s a two-hour drive. EasyJet also flies from London Gatwick to Bordeaux (1hr 40mins flight, then a 3hr drive) and from Bristol to Biarritz (2hr flight and 2hr drive).

When to go

Summer activities are available mid-June to the end of September.