DISCOVER PAU
Pau (Paue in basque) is a town and commune of southwestern France, capital of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques département.
Pau is famous for the Boulevard des Pyrénées, a walk of three-quarters of a kilometer from the château to the Parc du Beaumont and the royal Beaumont Park with magnificent views of the mountains in the Pyrenees mountain range. Along the elevated path the iron hand-rails have plaques explaining which mountain is directly in front of you and how high it is.
The Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (founded in 1972) is situated in the town and accounts for Pau's high student population.
Pau was the capital of the former province of Béarn. The site, on a slight elevation overlooking the valley of the mountain river called the Gave de Pau, where it was crossed by a ford, controlled access to an easy passage into the Pyrenees, used annually for the seasonal pasturage of flocks of sheep in the high meadows (now represented by a hiking footpath GR 65 that runs about 60 km south to the Spanish border). Access to the pass partly accounts for Pau's strategic importance.
Pau has an airport, Pau Pyrénées Airport, which is about 10 km away from the centre. From the Boulevard des Pyrénées, the Funiculaire de Pau, a newly refurbished funicular railway, takes you to the valley bottom near Pau railway station.
 HISTORY OF PAU
The site was fortified in the 11th century ("pau" means "palisade" in Occitan), and it became the seat of the viscounts of Béarn. Pau was made the capital of Béarn in 1464. During the early 16th century, the Château de Pau, made more habitable by Gaston Fébus, count of Foix, became the residence of the kings of Navarre, who were also counts of Béarn.
Pau was the birthplace of Henry IV of France (1553–1610), though this required some extraordinary effort. His mother, the redoubtable Jeanne d'Albret, crossed the whole of France to ensure that her son would be born there. The baby's lips were moistened with the local wine and rubbed with garlic shortly after the birth.
Charles XIV of Sweden was born in Pau, in 1763.
When Henry IV left Pau to become King of France, he remarked to the local notables that he was not giving Béarn to France, he was giving France to Béarn.
The English discovered the charms of Pau and its climate and left their imprint, partly because Wellington left a garrison at Pau on his way into Spain during the Peninsular War against Napoleon.
Vacationing British, arriving before the railroad did, established the scenic promenade, the Boulevard des Pyrenées, the first full 18-hole golf course in Europe (laid out in 1856/1860, and still in existence), and a real tennis court.
Napoleon III refurbished the château, while Pau added streets of Belle Époque architecture, before fashion transferred to Biarritz. Pau is still a major centre for winter sports and for equestrian events, with a famous steeplechase.
CHATEAU DE PAU
In the center of Pau there is a magnificent castle, the Château de Pau, that dominates that quarter of the city. It is famous for being the birthplace of the 16th century king of France Henry IV and was once used by Napoleon as a holiday home during his period of power. It has a small garden that was tended by Marie Antoinette when she spent much of the summers in the city.
The château now is considered a French historical monument and contains a nice collection of tapestry.
GRAND PRIX DE PAU
Pau holds the honor of arranging the first race ever to be called a Grand Prix in 1901. After that the 1928 French Grand Prix was held in nearby Saint-Gaudens, Pau also wanted to arrange the race and in 1930 the French Grand Prix was held on a Le Mans type track outside the city with Philippe Étancelin winning for Bugatti. Pau was back in the race calendar in 1933, now with a Monaco inspired track in the city center.
The track, which is 2.769 km in length, is one of the most curious and twisty in the GP history and has remained more or less unchanged into the 1990s. The first curve is the sharp station hairpin. After that the road climbs on the Avenue Léon Say, alongside the stone viaduct that carries the Boulevard de Pyrenées, to Pont Oscar. A tunnel is followed by the narrow hairpin at the high school Louis Barthou that leads the track into the demanding Parc Beaumont section at the top of the town. After visiting the Casino garden and passing yet another hairpin, the Virage the Buisson, the track winds its way back to the startline along the Avenue Lacoste.
From Wikipedia
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