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Please note, I am quoting here a comment from a hiker who is not used to hiking in the wilderness:
"If you like getting lost in ferns and ticks this summer, this walk is for you.
The route is impossible to follow, as the ferns hide all traces of the path. The markings are almost invisible in summer."
Although very close to the city, and therefore frequented by people more accustomed to pedestrian streets than hiking trails, we are here in the mountains, or more precisely, in the mid-range mountains. If you stray from the marked trail, you risk finding yourself above dangerous cliffs (marked in bold black lines on the map).
The scene is set!
From Lourdes town centre, head for the slopes of Béout, following signs for "Cité Saint-Pierre", "Auditorium Padre Pio" or "Village des jeunes". Park either near the entrance to Cité Saint-Pierre or in one of the establishment's car parks (if the security service allows you to enter, particularly in low season).
(S/E) Enter the establishment's site via the paved communal road that runs through it. Quickly make your way to the top of the site, leaving two large accommodation buildings on your right (Pavillons Saint-Vincent-de-Paul and Ozanam) and another large building on your left (marked "Bureau des guides" and "Accueil").
Continue uphill. Then pass a series of three other accommodation pavilions on your right (marked "Sainte-Anne, Saint-Martin and Saint-Jacques"). Continue climbing, still on a small tarmac road running alongside the edge of a wood on your left, bordered by a rustic stone wall and meadows on your right. Pass a two-storey barn on the hillside and continue along the road, still within the grounds of the "Cité Saint-Pierre" establishment, towards the Mouniquet farm.
(1) At an elevation of 526 metres, there is a small car park on the right and a wooden sign saying "Béout" (photo).
Do not continue towards the farm buildings on the left (Mouniquet farm), which are privately owned and leased.
Follow the sign and go through a zigzag cattle grid. At this point, you will leave the establishment's property.
As at the start of the route, you will follow a loop without any markings. Be careful not to stray from the well-marked paths or the simple tracks. Immediately after the gate, turn left along the fence and climb up the embankment. Then a path climbs a few dozen metres to the right across a meadow. Stay on the right-hand side of the hill and do not cut across the meadows.
When you reach a small clearing, which may or may not have been mowed depending on the season, turn sharply left to pass upstream of a short hedge of trees with a low stone wall at its foot. There is not always a well-marked path (especially at the beginning of the summer season, when it has not yet been used).
Do not attempt to go around the small hill of Turoun Esplat on the right. Reach its modest summit at 633 m above Mouniquet and head roughly south. At the end of this new "pla", at an altitude of 620 m, the slope becomes very steep.
However, choose to continue on this path to the right towards the cross at the summit of Béout. This leaves the western escarpments behind.
(2) You will reach the summit at 791 m. From there, you can see the town of Lourdes and its surroundings, the Arboucau valley and the Soum d'Ech to the west, the Batsurguère valley to the south-west, the main Pyrenean mountain range in the distance to the south and the "big brother" and rival, the Pic du Jer (948 m) and its funicular railway.
We then continue the circuit towards the viewpoint of the old cable car and the radio communications pylon, which we will have in direct view.
The path descends through the ferns. Following the ridge, you pass by a first isolated rock block, clearly visible from a distance (photo), then at an altitude of 765 metres you reach a group of two blocks (photo), including the famous "Mysterious Rock", mentioned on the IGN map. These granite boulders, whereas all the other rocks here are limestone, have long been a mystery, hence the name Mysterious. Today we know that they were dragged here by glaciers and probably come from Cauterets or Gavarnie. They are defined as "erratic boulders".
The end of the route via the small pass du Béout, between the Grand Béout (the cross) and the Petit Béout (the antenna), is quite chaotic, crossing sharp limestone pavement and dense, low vegetation (photo).
(3) The viewpoint can be reached in 1 hour 15 minutes from the start (for good walkers; allow 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes if taking breaks). The view of Lourdes and the surrounding area is very interesting. The place is mysterious because it has been virtually abandoned after a glorious past
We are opposite the Pic du Jer, which stole the limelight from Béout in the late 1980s. The Béout cable car, obsolete and too expensive to renovate, was shut down in 1986. However, until 2000, the two cable car cabins remained suspended from their cable until the facilities were dismantled.
For its part, the Pic du Jer funicular, built in 1900, has been in operation for over a century and has undergone two renovations that have preserved the historic character of the installation. Its operators developed other activities at the summit, which have made it a tourist attraction in Lourdes to this day.
On our belvedere and in the premises of the old station, open to the elements and left abandoned, sheep have made it their domain.
There is a curious atmosphere, as in all sites from the industrial era that have been abandoned by humans without removing the vestiges of the past.
Continuing south-east, you soon come across a rusty sign, on which you can still make out the word "Gouffre" (chasm) with an arrow, and a steel handrail, embedded several metres into the rock.
This path leads, a few hundred metres below, to the "Gouffre de Lourdes" and the old technical and visitor facilities of this cave.
Return via the rear of the buildings and head for the first electricity pylon at the start of the descent, to the north-east. This marks the start of a fairly well-marked path, although it is very steep and quite slippery.
NB: as the following section is very little used, the path may be overgrown with ferns (especially in summer). You can also choose to return via the path you took on the way there (in which case, return via (2), then (1), then (S/E).
(4) Reach a small clearing. Immediately turn left, even if the ferns are particularly tall depending on the season. Take a chimney where you will need to use your hands. Reach a well-marked path below that heads north-east. This path quickly winds between rocky outcrops where you will need to use your hands. There is a short, safe descent in the wooded gap.
(5) At the bottom of the path, you will arrive at an open plateau (the grounds of the Lourdes Trial Club).
Immediately turn left onto the small, well-marked path in the undergrowth.
Then continue left on the track that leads to a barrier that can be easily crossed on foot.
(6) Reach the start of the tarmac path, near the uninhabited Doucet farm, at the top of La Citoyenne, then the starting point in Milhas (S/E).
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