Couserans press kit

A Preserved Nature

In the western part of Ariège, the Couserans and its 18 valleys is a vast territory shared between high mountains, mountains and foothills, entirely covered by the Ariège Pyrenees Regional Natural Park, dominated by the 2 meters of Mont Valier, “Lord of the Couserans”.

The Couserans is above all a nature destination, in the heart of an exceptionally preserved natural environment: the Lers pond, the Ars waterfall, the Cagateille cirque, the Bethmale lake... so many natural spots of incredible beauty.
Bordering Spain to the south and Haute-Garonne to the west, it is a destination for high mountains, challenges, mountaineering, canyoning, hiking and exploration in the summer.
Water is omnipresent, going through the valleys that the rivers and torrents borrow, in the jumps of the numerous waterfalls, in the mountain springs or in the lakes of altitude.

In winter, there's downhill skiing at the Guzet resort or Nordic skiing at the Lers pond, while lovers of wide open spaces can try ski touring or snowshoeing.
The main villages, Castillon-en-Couserans, Seix, Aulus-les-Bains, Massat, La Bastide de Sérou, Sainte-Croix-Volvestre and Saint-Lizier, are organized around the central town: Saint-Girons. In the shadow of the Gallo-Roman ramparts of the ancient episcopal city of Saint-Lizier, Saint-Girons, capital of Couserans Pyrénées, stretches its picturesque streets on either side of two tumultuous torrents coming from the highest mountains. Mines, marble quarries, vestiges of a flourishing industrial era are visible in the four corners of Couserans, as are the small mountain villages of its 18 valleys, witnesses of an agricultural era which supported an entire territory, an entire population.
Like the Saint-Girons market on Saturday morning, a true institution, there are events that are absolutely not to be missed in Couserans Pyrénées!
Going to buy your cheese, your jam, your honey from a producer, watching the flocks of sheep (or Mérens horses!) move up to the summer pastures during the transhumance, so many moments to experience which characterize this destination so touching, so special.

Tourism, an economic asset

AN EMERGING “ALL-SEASON” PYRENEAN DESTINATION
Now recognized as a local destination, the Couserans is a vast territory whose tourist offer is distinguished by its variety. Its main assets are naturally divided into five "standards": Saint-Lizier (heritage), Aulus and the Cascade d'Ars (thermal spa, outdoor activities), Guzet (winter & summer mountain), Mont Valier (hiking, wild nature), and finally the "universe" of the Couserans, its living environment, its inhabitants, its products, its living culture.

The dual summer/winter tourist and heritage attraction thus gives the region significant potential to develop and position an "all-season" offering, capable of responding to different tourist trends and practices.

Of every €100 entering the Couserans region, €47 comes from tourist spending (source: Acadie).

Thus, it is thanks to the effective articulation of the specificities of each valley that the territory seeks to consolidate its tourist economic fabric in the long term by generating new activities and new jobs. It is therefore this all-season positioning that the Couserans-Pyrénées Community of Communes is carrying through the new organization of tourism stakeholders.

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