Pic du Midi de Bigorre

MIDI PYRENEES - La Mongie

"La Mongie" is the largest Ski Resort in the Pyrenees and is also the cable car access to the Pic du Midi de Bigorre (2,872 m), on the summit of which is a 19th-century observatory. Work on the observatory started in 1878 and was completed in 1908. Observatory equipment has been in place since 1905 and in 1963 NASA funded the installation of a telescope for photographs of the Moon in preparation for the Apollo missions - "the first station of the cable car"

Photo: Malcolm Reynard