Campan
Campan is a French commune located in the center of the Hautes-Pyrénées department, in the Occitanie region. Historically and culturally, the commune is in the province of Haut-Adour, formerly included in the old county of Bigorre.
This mountainous area consists of the western extensions of the Néouvielle and Arbizon massifs. Experiencing a mountain climate, it is drained by the Adour, Adour de Gripp, Adour de Lesponne, Gaoube, Gaoubole, Garet, the Arizes stream, and various other small rivers. Included in the Pyrénées National Park, the commune boasts a remarkable natural heritage: a Natura 2000 site, a protected area, and sixteen natural areas of ecological, faunal, and floristic interest.
Campan is a rural commune with 1,264 inhabitants in 2022, after having experienced a population peak of 4,329 inhabitants in 1821. It is in the Bagnères-de-Bigorre urban area and is part of the Bagnères-de-Bigorre catchment area. Its inhabitants are called Campanois or Campanoises.
Geography
Location
Campan is located in the Pyrenees mountain range, in the upper Adour Valley, at the confluence of the Adour and Adour de Payolle rivers. The Pic du Midi de Bigorre is less than 10 kilometers as the crow flies from the main town.The city of Lourdes is about 30 kilometers northwest of Campan.
The nearest border with Spain is a 1 hour 30 minute drive away.
Introduction
Campan includes:- The town, seat of the Mairie
- Galade
- Ste Marie de Campan, famous for its role in the Tour de France cycle race
- La Séoube and its valley, which leads to the col d'Aspin
- Payolle
- Gripp et Artigues at the floor of the col du Tourmalet
Neighboring communes
The neighbouring communes are Ancizan, Arreau, Aspin-Aure, Asté, Aulon, Bagnères-de-Bigorre, Beaudéan, Beyrède-Jumet-Camous and Esparros.Geology and relief
The Campan Valley is an ancient glacial valley. It is prone to earthquakes and is located in a highly seismic zone. One of the oldest recorded earthquakes dates back to June 21, 1660. The earth is said to have trembled for three weeks.The commune covers an area of 9,541 hectares; its altitude varies between 629 and 2,747 meters.
The peaks located in the commune of Campan are Teillet, Castet Sarradis, and Soum de Marianette. The peaks of Hount Blanque, Pene Arrouye, and Pic de Montarrouye are located on the border between the communes of Campan and Bagnères-de-Bigorre.
Marble quarries were mined until the end of the 20th century. The marble, pink with green veins, was used, among other things, to decorate the Palace of Versailles.
Hydrography
The commune is located in the Adour basin, within the Adour-Garonne hydrographic basin. It is drained by the Adour, forming a hydrographic network of 203 km in total length.The Adour, with a total length of 308.8 km, is formed in the Campan Valley in Haute-Bigorre from the meeting of three torrents: the Adour de Payolle, the Adour de Gripp and the Adour de Lesponne and flows from south to north. It crosses the commune and flows into the Bay of Biscay at Anglet, after crossing 118 communes.
Landscapes and relief
Climate
The Météo-France weather station located in the town and in operation from 1959 to 2015 allows us to track the evolution of meteorological indicators. A detailed table for the period 1981-2010 is presented below.Communication routes and transport
Communication routes
There is only one road that runs up the valley between the village and Sainte-Marie: the D935 departmental road. The village can be reached from the north via Beaudéan on the same D935 or via Asté on the D8 departmental road. At Sainte-Marie, the D935 joins the D918 departmental road, which connects the Col d'Aspin to the Col du Tourmalet. It is therefore possible to reach the commune of Campan via these two mountain passes.Numerous streets and roads branch off from these two main roads to serve the various parts of the commune, such as the D154 and the D155.
Transportation
The Hautes-Pyrénées General Council offers an on-demand bus service on the Sainte-Marie-de-Campan / Bagnères-de-Bigorre route.There is no other public transport service for accessing or moving around within the commune of Campan.
Urban planning
Typology
As of January 1, 2024, Campan is categorized as a rural commune with dispersed housing, according to the new seven-level municipal density grid defined by INSEE in 2022. It belongs to the urban unit of Bagnères-de-Bigorre, an intra-departmental agglomeration grouping ten communes, of which it is a suburban commune. Furthermore, the commune is part of the Bagnères-de-Bigorre catchment area, of which it is a suburban commune. This area, which groups together 21 communes, is categorized in areas with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants.Land use
Campan's land use, as shown in the European Corine Land Cover biophysical land use database, is marked by the importance of forests and semi-natural environments, a proportion identical to that of 1990. The detailed breakdown in 2018 is as follows: environments with shrubby and/or herbaceous vegetation, forests, grasslands, open spaces with little or no vegetation, mixed agricultural areas, and urbanized areas.The IGN also provides an online tool allowing users to compare changes over time in land use in the commune. Several periods are accessible in the form of maps or aerial photos: the Cassini map, the staff map and the current period.
Urban morphology
Historically, Campan is made up of three large entities, former parishes:- Le Bourg, seat of the town hall;
- Sainte-Marie-de-Campan, famous for its role in the Tour de France cycling race;
- La Séoube and its valley leading to the Col d'Aspin.
The commune is very large and contains many small hamlets. These include:
- Payolle, at the foot of the Col d'Aspin;
- Saint Roch, Galade, and Rimoula, just south of the village;
- Trassouet, below Sainte-Marie;
- Gripp and Artigues at the foot of the Col du Tourmalet;
- Le Sarrat de Bon and Le Sarrat de Gaye, on the hillside between the Gripp and Payolle valleys;
- Le Peyras, above Rimoula.
Accommodation
Of these dwellings, 34.5% were primary residences, 57.6% were secondary residences, and 7.9% were vacant. 72.6% of these dwellings were detached houses and 17.4% were apartments. Between 2006 and 2011, the proportion of vacant dwellings in the commune nearly doubled, rising from 4.9% to 7.9%.
The proportion of owner-occupied primary residences was 79.3%, a slight increase compared to 2006. The proportion of vacant social housing units was 1.8% compared to 2.9% previously, with their number decreasing slightly from 19 to 12 between 2006 and 2012.
In both 2011 and 2009, nearly 45% of primary residences had five rooms or more.
Major risks
The territory of the commune of Campan is vulnerable to various natural hazards: weather, floods, forest fires, landslides, avalanches and earthquakes. It is also exposed to a technological risk, the transport of hazardous materials, and to a particular risk: the risk of radon. A site published by BRGM allows you to simply and quickly assess the risks of a property located either by its address or by its plot number.Natural risks
Certain parts of the municipal territory are likely to be affected by the risk of flooding due to overflowing rivers, notably the Adour, the Adour de Lesponne, and the Adour de Gripp. The mapping of flood-prone areas in the former Midi-Pyrénées region, carried out as part of the 11th State-Region Planning Contract, aimed at informing citizens and decision-makers about flood risks, is available on the DREAL Occitanie website. The municipality has been declared a state of natural disaster due to damage caused by floods and mudslides in 1982, 1991, 1999, 2009, and 2015.Campan is exposed to the risk of forest fires. A departmental forest fire protection plan was approved by prefectural decree on April 21, 2020, for the period 2020-2029. The previous one covered the period 2007-2017. The use of fire is governed by two types of regulations. First, the forestry code and the prefectural decree of October 27, 2014, which regulate the use of fire within 200 m of combustible natural areas throughout the department. Second, the regulation established as part of the fight against air pollution, which prohibits the burning of private green waste. Slash-and-burn is regulated by local slash-and-burn commissions.
The ground movements likely to occur in the commune are soil movements related to the presence of clay and differential settlement.
The shrinkage and swelling of clay soils can cause significant damage to buildings in the event of alternating periods of drought and rain. 11.4% of the communal area is at medium or high risk. Of the 1,575 buildings counted in the municipality in 2019, 592 are at medium or high risk, representing 38%, compared to 75% at the departmental level and 54% at the national level. A map of the national territory's exposure to clay soil shrinkage and swelling is available on the BRGM website.
Furthermore, to better understand the risk of ground subsidence, the national inventory of underground cavities allows for the location of those situated in the commune.
Regarding ground movements, the commune was declared a natural disaster area due to damage caused by ground movements in 1999, by landslides in 1986, and by rockfalls and/or boulder falls in 1994.
The commune is exposed to avalanche risks. Residents at risk should inquire at the town hall about the existence of an avalanche risk prevention plan. If applicable, they should identify the measures specific to their home, identify the room with the least exposed facade within the home that could serve as a shelter if necessary, and equip this room with an emergency kit.