Pyrénées Andes, a place to live in the heart of a Pyrenean valley

Pyrenees Andes is the fusion of 2 beautiful mountains. The Andes which are the roots of our family and the Pyrenees the mountains which have chosen us for creating this project. It is also a fusion of cultures, encounters between people who have always lived in this beautiful valley and new people who arrive amazed by its preserve nature; all with the desire to participate in its everyday life. We dream of a place that can offer different services, both commercial and cultural. Where books have their place, as a way of sharing and bonding for the youngest as well as for the oldest. But also a multi-service shop such as has not existed in the valley for more than two decades and which will be able to meet the main needs of the local population. A local grocery store to give visibility to the artisan products of the valley but also a store that avoid going for kilometers just for basic products . Ultimately, the soul of Pyrenees Andes is above all to create a place to meet, to share a coffee, a drink, a book, a game or just to start a conversation between neighbors and friends. A place where everyone can feel very welcome, like when you come to visit friends. Where exactly will Pyrenees Andes be located? In Seich, the Nistos valley in the Hautes-Pyrénées, 45 minutes from Tarbes and 1h15 from Toulouse: Who are we? Catalina, originally from Colombia (more exactly from Fusagasuga), is a specialist in market research with a beautiful experience in Latin America and France. She is passionate about the mountains (of any continent) and does everything to create warm moments and make feel everyone welcome! Rémi, originally from the Landes, spent more than ten years in Colombia and Peru where he learned the importance of supporting each other in every aspect of the life and the strength of human ties through the support of various NGOs in these countries. He is now dedicated to the renovation of Pyrennes Andes future place and is completely invested in the project to soon make it a reality. He is now thriving as a young librarian in the valley! The origin of the project... In 2019, Rémi, through the Ouishare community was able to explore these new hybrid and rural places, called "Third place" during a two-week cycling trip between Toulouse and the Dordogne. Inspired by this experience, we decided to create our own project in 2020. The Covid year in Latin America allowed us to think about our ideal project in order to combine our family objetives for a more sustainable world and the ways we could contribute to the community in which we would settle. So 2 years ago we arrived in France after more than 13 years in Colombia and Peru. We arrived with the dream of living in the country side and create a place that can participate in the life of a valley on a human scale, preserved from excessive tourist development. We start exploring the Pyrenees (we did not want to let go of the mountains) and we had never heard of the valley of Nistos (no many people do actually), but once we arrived in Seich, once under the great Lebanese cedar of the house of Bibise, we knew that this was the right place for our projet. All the conditions came together to confirm our choice: the the valley residens and their warmest welcome, the local actors seeing our project with kindness, the projects and associations already present in the valley and with which we knew right away that we could colaborate together in bringing this project to life. The large cedar will shelter the future terrace and will offer a beautiful view of the village and the valley: Where are we with the project? Following a call for projects from Bibliotheques Sans Frontieres and the Cultura Foundation, we were able to open in November 2021 the micro-library of the valley throught an associative form and benefit from a donation of nearly 1500 books. Thanks also to the support of the majors of Seich and Nistos, in particular through the donation of a temporary place, we could receive a hundred members and the children of the school in the valley . Users of the microlibrary, opened in November 2021: Many activities to give life to the project have been organized already for children and adults, such as our participation in Partir en Livre in 2022 and 2023, author meetings , the organization of an Occitan evening as part of the Printemps des Poètes. During this last event, we received an Occitan poetess, an Occitan singer and the choirs of the valley. A hundred people were able to attend this beautiful evening! Today, we can also count on volunteers who help us to ensure the permanence, the organization of the activities. Many thanks to Marie Dominique, Elodie, Aurélie, Céline, Cathy and Yann! Thanks to the dynamism that we have given to the microlibli, Biblioteques sans frontieres has chosen our place as one of the fine examples of the success of their "Microlibli" program. Thus, we had the chance to welcome the sponsor of BSF, Augustin Trapenard and the project team during a visit to our micro-library in September 2022! You can explore all the activities we have carried out since the opening of our microlibrary on our social networks!