Sainte-Engrace, France  - You had better not be prone to dizziness, if you cross the Himalayan-style suspension bridge at Holzarte in the French Pyrenees. Under your feet yawns a gorge some 150 metres deep, clearly visible in gaps between the slats. And the bridge sways more violently the closer you come to the middle.

Italian carpenters built the structure in the 1920s, when villages in the Pyrenees were isolated. Today, it serves as a starting point for hikes in Basque country and the former French province of Bearn.

The Basque country is known for berets, and Bearn for béarnaise sauce, but both attributions are false. Berets actually originated in neighbouring Bearn, where shepherds knitted the flat, round caps and then felted, them. They became world famous thanks to the Basque people, though.

As for béarnaise sauce, it was created in Paris and named after Henry IV, king of France, who was born in the Bearn region.

Jean Soust, a hiking guide, told these and other anecdotes during our steady ascent. "There's hardly another mountain range in Europe where so much biodiversity has been preserved," he said, pointing to flowers along the trail.

Unlike the Alps, the Pyrenees have been spared mass tourism so far. Two long-distance hiking trails traverse the range, which forms the border between France and Spain.

Our trail led past a powerful waterfall and through a beech forest. Above the timberline, a path used by shepherds wound its way up a mountain pasture. A tolling of bells sounded like the start of Catholic High Mass, but it came from hundreds of sheep. They gorge themselves on herbs that give Pyrenean cheese its flavour.

There was more ringing a little later, this time from sturdy horses with long, shaggy manes with bells around their necks so that their owners could find them more easily.

Numerous gites, guest houses where regional fare is served in the evening, offer travellers a place to spend the night. Didier Constance runs the Ferme de sejour Espondaburu, a gite near the village of Sainte-Engrace.

"Today there's oeufs (eggs) en cocotte, mutton with chanterelles and sheet cake with fresh blackberries," Constance announced to his guests. While delicious smells wafted from the kitchen, the guests bided the time until dinner splendidly with glasses of red wine by the fireplace.

The next morning, mist shrouded the valley, a condition typical of the northern, French side of the Pyrenees. It is often warmer and drier on the Spanish side. The murky weather in the mountains has its charm, however, as the landscape looks enchanted in soft light.

When a ray of sunlight managed to slip through the clouds, water droplets clinging to spiders' webs and blades of grass glittered like crystal glass. Vultures circled overhead.

The Pyrenees also have some surprises for culture lovers, for example Romanesque churches with figures carved into column capitals. In Sainte-Engrace, there is a depiction of the Three Wise Men visiting Mary and the infant Jesus. Mary's features are those of a well-fed Basque peasant woman.

Internet: www. francetourism. com, www. tourisme64. com (dpa)