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French Pyrénées - 2025
Saint-Lary Soulan
Skiing - Spring 2025
8th - 15th March
Saint-Lary Soulan is a typical Pyrénéan village nestling in the Valleee d'Aure at an altitude of 830m. The Aure is a tributary of the mighty Garonne, which flows south-west to join the Gironde Estuary and Bordeaux on the Atlantic coast of France.
The village sits on the trans-Pyrénéan D929 departmental road running from Auch, just west of Toulouse, through the Tunnel d'Aragnouet to Beilsa and onwards to Ainsa in Spain.
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Surrounding the lively village, loaded with plenty of shops, restaurants and aprés-ski hospitality, are the high peaks of the Pyrénées, notably Pic de Neouvielle (3092m) and Pic de Long at an impressive, 3192m.
Linked by two lifts from the village, a telecabine and a gondala, the principal 'domaine de ski' is above and to the west of the village at Pla d'Adet (1700m). From here, an extensive lift network facilitates mostly blue- and red-run pistes downhill from the highest point, the Pic Hayele, at 2515m.
The resort has a reliable snow record well into March although I arrived during a relatively mild period which saw the village snow-free in the early spring Pyrénéan sunshine.
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However, the lower slopes of the skable domaine are above 1700m and are well-equipped with snow-making facilities so skiing at Saint-Lary Soulan near the end of the season was ok until lunchtime but after that, especially around the busy area near the top of the lifts from the village, snow cover was wearing thin and was little better than slushy higher up.
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But for the final three days of my six, I took the shuttle bus from the top of the village lifts to the adjoining ski area of Espiaube where conditions were brilliant - wonderful, spring skiing with plenty of depth to the pistes remaining and conditions crisp rather than soft. Great fun!
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With a 6-day whole-area lift pass at just €188, this is surely one of the best-value resorts in France. (€188 tariff available if booked online at least 28 days ahead of arrival).
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For future information and based on my visit, Saint-Lary-1700 (Pla d'Adet) and Saint-Lary 1900 (Espiaube) have spectacular, panoramic views over the Pyrenees. The new gondola from Saint Lary Village to Saint Lary 1700 enables access to the ski slopes in just 8 minutes, and with 100 km of marked ski runs in 3 different areas, Saint Lary has unlimited skiing across a stunning natural landscape.
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SAINT-LARY 1700 "Pla d'Adet" is the first arrival ski area from the village lifts and is dedicated to family skiing with a snow garden, tobogganing and a fun "Kids Park".
SAINT-LARY 1900 "Espiaube": Is an area for experienced skiers and is well linked to the other areas 1700 and 2400 across the ski slopes or otherwise by road (shuttle bus).
SAINT-LARY 2400: provides the moguls stadium, the slalom, the snowpark with its mega sound system, and some terrific downhill skiing under the peaks of the Pyrénées.
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Most of the slopes below 1900 m are now equipped with artificial snow (Cabane, Bouleaux, Corniche) along with the popular ski and snowboard runs (Terranère, Isard, bas de Corneblanque).
Skiable Domaine and Pistes
The skiable domain at Saint-Lary Soulan comprises over 100km of groomed pistes. A substantial proportion of these are squarely aimed at the recreational skiier rather than black-run speed-and-risk crazies!
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Principally linked to the lift-arrival plateau above the village, a varied selection of green and blue runs make for an gentle start to the day on the slopes. Further afield and higher up, stiffer blues and reds are an intermediate skier's paradise with a great balance of wide cruising runs interlinked with steeper more challenging skiing available for the more adventurous.
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In total, there are 59 prepared pistes: 7 green; 26 blue; 15 red; and 11 black runs.​ The total skiable area is interlinked with a network of 24 lifts and a free shuttle-bus service from the village to the local area base of Saint-Lary 1900 Espiaube as an alternative to taking the telecabine or the gondola from the village and skiing across.
Living in Saint-Lary
I stayed in very comfortable (for one at least) self-catering accommodation in the small, purpose-built residence, 'Les Ramondies', from Saturday 8th March until the following Saturday 15th.
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The residence is located is just a 5 minute, easy 200m walk across the car park to the base station of the telecabine - which even in ski boots wasn't too demanding.
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The apartment comprised one double bedroom, together with all the usual ski-apartment paraphanelia including a reasonably well-equipped kitchen , a dining area, and a convertible sofa/pull-out bed in the living area so at a push, could sleep a somewhat 'cosy' four in total. For me on my own, I had loads of space and a delightful balcony which welcomed afternoon sun for when I'd had enough in the snow.
Saint-Lary Soulan welcomes visitors to enjoy its lively and authentic large village / small town environment.
The main street, Rue Vincent Mar, strikes through the centre of town. Lined with shops and commercial premises serving both tourists and locals alike, there were also plenty of restaurants and bars to choose from after a great day on the slopes.
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Holiday money went a fair bit further here than other French ski resorts, especially when compared with notoriously expensive locations such as Courcheval or Tignes in the Alpes. Aside from the lift pass, restaurants in town seemed very good value with plenty of inexpensive choices available.
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There are several supermarkets including a large Carrefour Market on the approach to Saint-Lary, and other smaller, grocery or specialist food shops scattered throughout the town.
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All the usual ski-rental chains have outlets in Saint-Lary, including Intersport and Interski. Both are offering a 6-day rental package comprising skis, boots and helmet for intermediate skiers at around the €90 mark (if booked online in advance).
Travelling to Saint-Lary
Saint-Lary Soulan is located some 150km south-west of Toulouse, the closest large city, and 70km south of Tarbes.
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A direct rail link from SNCF Gare de Toulouse-Matabiau to arrive at Lannemezan would then require a relatively short, 45-minute bus ride up the valley to Saint-Lary. Both rail and bus services run throughout the day. It would be possible to travel by train all the way from London St.Pancras International to Lannemezan, via Paris of course, and with very careful planning, may be achievable in a day.
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The major airport at Toulouse-Blagnac has frequent services from the UK, with the smaller airport at Tarbes being served by some UK-based budget airlines such as Ryanair and Easyjet. Onward travel from Tarbes is also a short train ride, again to Lannemazen, followed by the bus to Saint-Lary.
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However, I travelled from the UK by road taking the Audi S1, into which I even managed to squeeze in my skis and all the rest of the kit! I departed Thursday 6th March on the DFDS Ferries service at 23:00 from Newhaven to Dieppe, arriving at a slightly alarming 05:00. A day on the road passing le Mans, Tours, and Limoges ended in Souillac in the Dordogne for an overnight stop which as it happens, wasn't especially inspiring. It was just a small market town in central France which, frankly, not much going on in early March. But the drive from Souillac to Saint-Lary Soulan the following morning took about 3-hours and avoiding the autoroute, I discovered some amazing 'driving' roads which the S1 loved.
Audi S1 on the way home - ironically, the previous day had seen a huge dump of snow, falling too heavily to permit any skiing even! So conditions would have been much better for the following week than I'd experienced. Such is the luck of the draw with late-season skiing.
