The Barousse is a small region of southwestern France, including the valley of the Ourse, a left tributary of the

Garonne The Garonne (, also , ; Occitan, Catalan, Basque, and es, Garona, ; la, Garumna or ) is a river of southwest France and northern Spain. It flows from the central Spanish Pyrenees to the Gironde estuary at the French port of Bordeaux – a ...

, in the Hautes-Pyrénées, and the smaller valley of

Siradan Siradan () is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France. See also *Communes of the Hautes-Pyrénées department *Barousse valley The Barousse is a small region of southwestern France, including the valley of the Ourse ...

. The main towns are Loures-Barousse and Mauleon-Barousse.

Toponymy

Its name comes from the pre-Latin

Gascon language Gascon (; , ) is the name of the vernacular Romance variety spoken mainly in the region of Gascony, France. It is often considered a variety of Occitan, although some authors consider it a different language.Cf. Rohlfs, Gerhard. 1970. ''Le ...

''Barroça'', which is based on the Basque language root ''ibar'' which means 'valley' and on a variant of the

toponymic Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of ''wikt:toponym, toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a p ...

suffix ''-oç''. Others have seen its origin in the name of the ''Ourse'' river. The Basque language influence is clearly discernible in toponyms such as Ourse, Loures-Barousse, Izaourt, Sarp, Ourde,

Esbareich Esbareich is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division) ...

, Sost, etc. Then the Romans left their marks with the names of estates such as Antichan and Samuran which eventually became villages. Finally, one can hear the Gascon language in the names Créchets (''small cliff''), Bramevaque (''mooing cow''),

Troubat Troubat is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France. File:Troubat église vue depuis château comtes Comminges (3).jpg, File:Plan de la grotte de Sainte Araille.png, File:Entrée de la Grotte de Troubat - Vallé ...

(''found''?) or

Cazarilh Cazarilh (; oc, Casarilh) is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France. See also *Communes of the Hautes-Pyrénées department * Barousse valley The Barousse is a small region of southwestern France, including the val ...

(''small hamlet''). The name of

Ilheu Ilheu is a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department in south-western France. See also * Communes of the Hautes-Pyrénées department * Barousse valley The Barousse is a small region of southwestern France, including the valley of the Ourse, a ...

is also reminiscent of the valley of Ilhéou.

Geography

Topography

Barousse corresponds mainly to the basin of the Ourse river in the northeast of the Moun Né () between the valley de la Pique, to the south, and the valley of Nistos to the north. It flows into the valley of the

near Barbazan. The small valley of

, which leads directly to the

from the plateau Cazarilh, is also part of the Barousse since no significant barrier separates it from the main valley. The valley is not a means of communication even if the port Balès (1755 m) can reach the valley of Oueil to the south.

Geology

About 50,000 to 60,000 years ago the valley was overrun by the glacier of the

as evidenced by impressive glacial deposits. This created a narrowing at mid-valley, resulting in the lock of

. The upper valley is covered with forests, while the central part is made up of grasslands. Within the karst landscape, there exists the gulf of Saoule in which the ''Ourse of Ferrère'' torrent plunges in cascades. Old quarries extracted limestone (dolomitic) at Thèbe. To the west of mount Sacon,

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ...

ore has been extracted to fuel the steel plant of Marignac. The water source of Saint-Nérée, upstream of Ferrère, is also subject to commercial exploitation.

History

The caves of

show traces of early settlements. Excavations have revealed flints, spears, a propeller, spears using antler horns, all dating from 15,000 to 8,000 years ago. Numerous remains of snails have been discovered: snails were consumed by the Pyreneans at the time. In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, Barousse broke way from the

Comminges The Comminges (; Occitan/ Gascon: ''Comenge'') is an ancient region of southern France in the foothills of the Pyrenees, corresponding closely to the arrondissement of Saint-Gaudens in the department of Haute-Garonne. This natural region is norm ...

to join the county of Aure and form the country of the

Quatre-Vallées Quatre-Vallées (i.e. "Four Valleys") ( Gascon: ''Quate-Vaths'') was a small province of France located in the southwest of France. It was made up of four constituent parts: Aure valley (Gascon: ''Aura''), Barousse valley (Gascon: ''Varossa''), ...

("Four Valleys").

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barousse Valley Landforms of Hautes-Pyrénées