Résumé
This chapter shows how the careful acquisition of geological, mineralogical, geochemical and chronological information over more than 200 years has allowed us to progressively reveal the geodynamic significance of the lithological associations that characterize the North Pyrenean Zone. It proposes a consistent explanation for the enigmas that they still pose today. The lateral extraction of the continental crust allowing denudation of the mantle and, on the other hand, the extraction of the metasediments during further sedimentation of the flysch. The particularity of the models lies in the presence of a thick layer with very low resistance constituting a detachment level allowing the pre‐ and synrift crust to remain in the center of the basin and to maintain the thermal anomaly. The mechanisms of Pyrenean rifting proposed in these recent models involve the individualization of thin hectometric crustal units that remain welded to the exhumed mantle.