The Val d'Aran, headwater river valley of the Garonne, lies in the western Catalan Pyrenees in the most northwesterly part of Catalonia. This is the only Atlantic valley in the principality, situated north of the axial Pyrenean crest, open to the Aquitanian plains towards which the Garonne flows to its mouth in the Atlantic near Bordeaux. Winter sports (Baqueira-Beret), adventure sports, hiking, climbing, mountaineering. Famed cuisine. Interesting Romanesque sites.