Our preferred partners

The best of your outdoor activities in Occitanie with our partners!

Surrounding yourself with partners who have the same sense of professionalism as us is not easy. We are quite demanding about the quality of the services they can offer you, because we strive to give you the best. As true friends can be counted on the fingers of one hand, the same goes for partners. It is with pleasure that we give you a little guide to the best players in outdoor tourism in our region.

In the Vicdessos Valley, the oldest and most loyal partners remain Kymaya Parapente. Franck, Hélio and their team offer you a variety of services throughout the year. In summer, you can discover paragliding at the Port de Lers with tandem flights. Yes, you know, paragliding with a pilot and a passenger seat, you fly above the Ariège peaks and you can see the cows in tiny detail under your feet.

For the more daring, there is an aerobatic version with aerobatics, believe me, Kymaya pilots have what it takes to make your head spin! After the tandem initiation, if you want to fly on your own, they offer paragliding courses where you will learn all the basic knowledge to fly alone in known sites. Kymaya goes even further by offering advanced training courses abroad, in India, Morocco or Portugal, a great way to travel and practice paragliding with this great team that we love.

Denis recently joined our list of partners. The alchemy happened very quickly and naturally. He offers to discover the mountain on two wheels. Through his structure Trott'e Occitanie, Denis welcomes you to the Goulier Neige resort to take you off the beaten track of this mountain that he knows so well. On his electric scooters, he takes you on an unusual adventure.

The machine is already surprising, "it climbs trees" as they say around here. The engines of this super scooter obey the fingers and the eye, we stroll in the middle of the mountains without too much effort. Denis offers several circuits, from quiet family discovery to extreme stuntman version mountain trails. What we like about him is that he is passionate about what he does. The mountain is his element and he likes to share it with you. It's not about dragging you through the tracks and paths but rather talking to you about what makes Ariège; its flowers and its trees, its stories and its ancestors, its peaks and its ports. We leave his place rinsed by adventure and our heads full of new things.

Oxygen Aventure, a structure masterfully led by Agathe and Elsa, based in Aude, is our favorite! These two women full of pep and their team offer you a lot of varied activities. We have been working with them for a long time and if they appear last, it is because we save the best for last. Between all these activities, we will stay focused on rafting and hydrospeed!

oxygen aventure raft partenaire speleo canyon ariege — Crédit Photo : Oxygen Aventure

Agathe is in charge of this part and we can say that the captain knows what she's doing. Initiations and discoveries or thrills, it's in Belvianes-et-Cavirac that it happens. There is the Oxygen Aventure whitewater base. We go down the Aude in superb landscapes, moments of tranquility and contemplation alternate with adrenaline rushes, the session is magnificently well constructed and Agathe accompanies you in the sporty discovery of this beautiful river. If you're lucky, you'll even see dingle-plouvers, birds with impressive underwater abilities! To stay in the aquatic domain, nothing beats a hydrospeed or rafting session with Oxygen Aventure!

oxygen aventure hydrospeed partenaire speleo canyon ariege — Crédit photo : Oxygen Aventure

As you can see, we don't have many partners because we select them carefully. You can go see them on our behalf with your eyes closed, you will be well received! We give you their contact details even if we would like to keep them for ourselves because they are so good...

Oxygen Adventure:

🌐 https://www.oxygen-aventure.com
☎️ 06 82 69 83 00 / 04 30 63 83 12
📧contact@oxygen-aventure.com

Trott'e Occitanie:

🌐 http://www.trotte-occitanie.com
☎️ 06 16 25 29 04
📧trotteoccitanie@gmail.com

Kymaya Parapente :

🌐 https://www.kymaya.com
☎️ 06 25 79 16 51
📧contact@kymaya.com

Text and photo credit: Arthur Serres

A sporty discovery day at the Artigue canyon

L’Artigue, an ideal canyon for sporting discovery

The Artigue canyon is the big brother of the canyons in the Vicdessos valley. It is the most fun and the richest in obstacles.

We start the day with a coffee, because without coffee it's not the same. The reception takes place at the Niaux canyon center. Around the table in the garden, the participants meet. Rod details the day's program. We start with individual equipment, everyone receives their equipment; socks, shoes, wetsuit, harness, helmet. We make a backpack with everything that we call a "turtle". We pack everyone's picnic, we check that we haven't forgotten anything. We put everything in the truck. We're off for a short drive to the Artigue car park.

From the car park, the approach walk is superb. It starts off a bit steep and then opens up onto the Montcalm massif. In front of us stands the Pic d'Estat and the canyon of the same name. In the middle of the mountains, we frolic with our turtles on our backs. This is the beginning of the adventure. We are in the heart of the Ariège Pyrenees, in the middle of nowhere. Civilisation gradually fades away, giving way to the wild nature of the peaks. We arrive behind the Bassiès cirque and its red peak. This is "the restaurant room", the picnic area, facing the mountains. Already there, we have worked up a good sweat and are happy to eat a bite.

After a complete briefing on communication, canyoning and abseiling and jumping techniques, knowing that jumps are never mandatory, we begin the descent. The Artigue is a progressive canyon. The first part, open to the peaks, allows you to admire the surroundings while getting into the swing of the activity. A first small jump, short slides, we dip ourselves in the water, we're there. The obstacles follow one after the other, it's sporty, we jump five meters, we do dry abseiling, abseiling in the waterfall, we pass the big slide.

Already the configuration of the canyon has changed, it becomes more steep, the vegetation is rarer, we feel that we are touching the heart of the canyoning activity. In a bend, the landscape appears, dazzling. We quickly understand that there is only one way to access this very special place; by practicing canyoning. While we have already taken in the view, comes the big jump, possible up to ten meters. Adrenaline rush obliges, we do not jump ten meters every day. This is where the canyoner learns that sometimes you have to know how to give up jumping the obstacle.

We arrive at the large twenty-meter waterfall! Several options open up, depending on the flow of the water; either we pass a large dry rappel with as a backdrop this enormous turquoise water pot embedded between walls of a breathtaking ochre-reddish color, or we go on the large zip line to arrive directly in the middle of this same pot. It continues with an eight-meter jump, a last slide and we arrive at the foot of the Artigue waterfalls, a little cherry on the cake. The tributary that comes from the Estat canyon pours from the top of beautiful waterfalls where we feel small in the face of the power of the water. After a last little jump to make sure we don't regret anything, we walk to the parking lot to change.

After a day like that, nothing beats a nice cold beer! We take the opportunity to meet up around the garden table in the center of Niaux and talk about this beautiful day we just spent. Everyone has their own little story, about this moment they really loved, about this place where it was so beautiful. The Artigue canyon is a great discovery of canyoning and a superb change of scenery in the heart of Ariège. Rod is happy to be able to share with you, for a day, his lifelong passion; canyoning!

See you this summer at the Artigue canyon!

Une journée canyoning à l'Artigue chez Spéléo Canyon Ariège

Made in Spéléo Canyon Ariège ; un jour au canyon de l'Artigue

On s'est retrouvés avec Thomas et ses enfants au centre de Spéléo Canyon Ariège. On buvait un café en discutant, John et Clyde étaient en retard. Thomas venait d'Allemagne, il était en vacances. John et Clyde sont arrivés, on s'est tous salués, John était d'origine anglaise et son fils Clyde l'accompagnait pour cette sortie. C'était sa première expérience en canyon. John était assez charpenté, avec une bonne cage thoracique, son fils était plutôt baraque lui aussi, Thomas était un peu plus petit mais bien costaud, ses enfants étaient ados, ils avaient l'air en forme. On avait une bonne équipe pour cette journée !

Rod expliquait le déroulement de la journée, un café à la main. On est allé s'équiper dans le centre, on a tout mit dans le camion et on s'est dirigés vers l'Artigue. On était un peu dans l'expectative, on ne savait pas comment allait être le niveau d'eau. On avait pris la météo, tout était bon, ça devrait le faire ! Après la bonne marche d'approche, on s'est installés face aux montagnes pour manger nos pique-nique. Le niveau de l'eau était parfait, des conditions idéales, on pouvait se détendre. John donnait à qui en voulait des morceaux de truite fumée, on regardait l'eau couler et les sommets au loin en mâchant nos sandwichs. On a quand même enfilé les combis et on est partis vers l'aventure.

Thomas et ses enfants étaient bien à l'aise dans le canyon. Un petit briefing sur la descente en rappel les a mis dans l'ambiance. John et Clyde s'amusent comme des petits fous dans les vasques d'eau, on avance. Le premier saut assez imposant passe tout seul, on se déplace comme des flèches, de cailloux en cailloux, de cascades en cascades. On attaque le grand toboggan, le saut, tout le monde a le sourire, les ados se régalent et les grands aussi. On est tous de grands enfants à jouer dans des marmites. La grande cascade de vingt mètre, on reprend un peu de sérieux. L’obstacle est d'envergure. L'eau fonce dans la marmite avec un bruit assourdissant, on passe à côté grâce à un grand rappel sec. Le canyon se finit, on reprend un petit sentier pour revenir à la voiture.

En remettant des vêtements secs, tout le monde rigolait. Quelle journée, on en prend plein les yeux ! De retour au centre, on a pris un verre en regardant les photos de cette belle sortie canyon. Tout le monde était heureux d'avoir pu participer à cette aventure. Pourquoi pas vous ?