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Theme Week Gascony – Bagnères-de-Luchon

Tuesday, 24 March 2015 - 01:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union
Category/Kategorie: General Reading Time:  4 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Bagnères-de-Luchon, also referred to as Luchon, is a French commune and spa town in the Haute-Garonne department in the Midi-Pyrénées region of south-western France. The inhabitants of the commune are known as Luchonnais or Luchonnaises. The commune has been awarded three flowers by the National Council of Towns and Villages in Bloom in the Competition of cities and villages in Bloom.

Bagnères-de-Luchon is located on the Spanish border some 50 km south-west of Saint-Gaudens and 40 km south of Montréjeau at the end of a branch line of the Southern railway at the foot of the central Pyrenees. To the south the Luchonnais Mountains form a natural barrier and there is no crossing point into Spain. The town is located in a valley at the confluence of the L’One river from the west and the Pique river from the south. There are several high mountain lakes in the south of the commune which feed the Pique including the Boums de Port and the Etang de la Freche.

The arrival of the railway in 1873 and the construction of the casino in 1880 further developed the popularity of the town where upscale and cosmopolitan tourists were not long in coming until the Roaring Twenties. Social benefits such as paid leave and social security then democratized the tourist population. A hydroelectric power plant was in place as early as 1890 by the La Luchonnaise company. The Tour de France made the town one of its obligatory stages since its inception. The commune was mentioned with the nickname “Queen of the Pyrenees” by Vincent de Chausenque in 1834 in his book Les Pyrénées ou voyages pédestres (“The Pyrenees or Hiking journeys”). Luchon mineral water has been marketed in recent years throughout France.

The opening of the mountain hotel of Superbagnères (finished work in 1922), then connected by a rack railway and today by gondola, completed the spa town with a winter sports resort. In the 1968 Winter Olympics, Ingrid Lafforgue defended the colours of the resort. Her twin sister Britt Lafforgue has an equally impressive record at the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships.

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Read more on Bagnères-de-Luchon, Bagnères-de-Luchon Tourism, Bagnères-de-Luchon Therme, Luchon Superbagnères and Wikipedia Bagnères-de-Luchon. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.

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