Hautes-Pyrénées is a department in the region of Occitania, southwestern France. The department is bordered by Pyrénées-Atlantiques to the west, Gers to the north, Haute-Garonne to the east, as well by the Spanish province of Huesca in the autonomous community of Aragon to the south. In 2019, its population was 229,567; its prefecture is Tarbes. It is named after the Pyrenees mountain range.
Prefecture building in Tarbes
Lourdes sanctuary
Pic du Midi de Bigorre
Vignemale
Gascon is 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.
Trilingual sign in Bayonne: French, Basque, and Gascon Occitan ("Mayretat", "Sindicat d'initiatibe")
According to the testimony of Bernadette Soubirous, the Virgin Mary spoke to her (Lourdes, 25 March 1858) in Gascon saying: Que soy era Immaculada Councepciou ("I am the Immaculate Conception", the phrase being reproduced under this statue in the Lourdes grotto in Mistralian/Febusian spelling), confirming the proclamation of this Catholic dogma four years earlier.