The Aspe Valley is a valley in the French part of the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

, department of

Pyrénées-Atlantiques Pyrénées-Atlantiques (; Gascon Occitan: ''Pirenèus Atlantics''; eu, Pirinio Atlantiarrak or ) is a department in the southwest corner of France and of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Pyrenees mountain range and the Atlant ...

Geography

It is one of the three valleys located in the historic region of upper Béarn, along with the

Ossau Valley The Ossau Valley (French: ''Vallée d'Ossau''; Gascon: ''Aussau'' / ''la vath d'Aussau'') is a valley of the French Pyrénées, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques ''département''. Administration 18 communes belong to the Valley: Arudy, Aste-Béo ...

to the east and Barétous Valley to the west. The valley of Aspe stretches for 25 miles along the river

Gave d'Aspe The Gave d'Aspe is a torrential river flowing through the Aspe Valley, one of the three main valleys of the High- Béarn (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), in the southwest of France. It is long. It is formed in the ''Aspe Cirque'', below the Aspe pea ...

, roughly going from the town of Escot to the Spanish border where it meets the Aragon Valley, named after the Spanish

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of w ...

. Thirteen towns, or communes, are established in the valley. From the north to the south, these are: Escot,

Lourdios-Ichère Lourdios-Ichère ( oc, Ardiòs e Ishèra) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, southwestern France.

Sarrance Sarrance (; oc, Sarrança) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. See also *Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department The following is a list of the 546 communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiqu ...

, Bedous,

Osse-en-Aspe Osse-en-Aspe is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. See also *Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department The following is a list of the 546 communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department o ...

Aydius Aydius (; oc, Aidius) is a Communes of France, commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Departments of France, department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of south-western France. Geography Aydius is located some 25 km south by south-east of O ...

Accous Accous is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in southwestern France. Geography Location Accous is located some 30 km south of Oloron-Sainte-Marie in the Aspe Valley, one of the thr ...

Lées-Athas Lées-Athas is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. See also *Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department The following is a list of the 546 communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of ...

Lescun Lescun () is a village and a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. It is at an elevation of approximately in a grand cirque. Lescun is situated on the GR 10 long-distance footpath traversing the Pyrenees. ...

Cette-Eygun Cette-Eygun is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. Its station on the Pau–Canfranc railway was closed after an accident in 1970. See also *Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department The follo ...

Etsaut Etsaut is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. Its station on the Pau–Canfranc railway was closed after an accident in 1970. See also *Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department The following ...

Borce Borce (; oc, Bòrça) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in southwestern France. See also *Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department The following is a list of the 546 communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques dep ...

and

Urdos Urdos is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. Its station on the Pau–Canfranc railway was closed after an accident in 1970. See also *Communes of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department The following ...

Language

The traditional dialect spoken in the valley is Gascon, a regional variety of

Occitan language Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Vall ...

History

The region has been invaded by many groups through its history: Moors, Romans, Germanic tribes, as well as kingdoms in Spain. In 1620, the sovereign state of Béarn, in which the valley was located, was annexed by the kingdom of France. During the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

in 1808, the troops of Napoleon passed through the valley while invading Spain.

References

{{Coord, 42.9500, N, 0.6000, W, source:wikidata, display=title Valleys of France Landforms of Pyrénées-Atlantiques