You will be ‘enchanted’ by the magical beauty of these mountains and lakes in the Spanish Pyrenees, and a hut to hut snowshoe trek is the ultimate winter experience.  The Val d’Aran is somewhat of an anomaly – it is on the northern side of the Pyrenees, is the source of the Garonne River which runs into France and through Toulouse and Bordeaux, but is Spanish territory.  The history of this mountainous enclave is complex.  An Occitan dialect is the main language (Aranais) with Catalan, Spanish and French also spoken.  In the middle ages the valley’s people voluntarily decided to rest with the Catalan-Aragonais crown rather than with the French, despite the stronger cultural (and geographic) links with France.  Until 1948 when the Vielha tunnel was constructed the valley was cut off from Spain throughout winter.