Where to Stay in Pau, Nouvelle-Aquitaine

What is Pau known for?

The Musée national du château de Pau crowns the old town, once the seat of the kings of Béarn. A grand terrace opens on the Pyrénées beyond. Add the Musée Bernadotte, the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau, and the Église Saint-Martin de Pau, and the shape of the resort city is set.

What are the main landmarks in Pau?

Pau centres on its castle. The Musée national du château de Pau holds the old royal seat of Béarn, and the terrace beside it opens the long view to the Pyrénées. The Musée Bernadotte and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau gather the city's history and art.

Churches mark the quarters, the Église Saint-Martin de Pau and the Église Saint-Jacques de Pau among them, while the Jaï-alaï de Pau keeps the local pelota tradition.

What is the history of Pau?

Pau rose as the capital of Béarn, the small mountain state that long kept its own laws below the Pyrénées. A castle made the city. The Musée national du château de Pau stands on the old fortress that became the seat of the viscounts and later the kings of Navarre, the birthplace of Henri IV, and for centuries the château fixed the town around it as the political heart of Béarn.

A soldier born here later became a king of Sweden, remembered in the Musée Bernadotte. Later the city took on a second life. English and other northern visitors came for the mild winters and the mountain air, and the belle-époque villas that line the eastern quarter, the Villa Lawrance and the Villa du Pont d'Oly among them, went up for that season of grand resort.

Churches from the older town still stand, the Église Saint-Martin de Pau and the Église Saint-Jacques de Pau among them. The city braids the mountain capital and the winter resort into one.

Where is Pau?

Pau lies in the south of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the old capital of Béarn under the Pyrénées. Mountains fill the southern skyline. The old town runs along a ridge above the river, the Musée national du château de Pau at its western end, and the long terrace beside the castle opens the famous view across to the peaks.

The belle-époque quarter spreads east along the same high ground.

What is the climate of Pau?

Pau has the mild, moist climate that first made it a winter resort, sheltered under the Pyrénées in southern Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Winters are gentle. Frost is light and snow rare on the town's ridge, even as the peaks beyond the terrace stay white, which is why northern visitors once wintered here.

Summers are warm and green, with the mountains drawing frequent afternoon rain. The air stays soft.

How do you get to Pau?

Pau sits on the rail line running along the northern edge of the Pyrénées, so many visitors arrive by train. An airport north of the city adds longer links. Roads climb up from the plains of Nouvelle-Aquitaine and down from the mountain valleys of Béarn.

Once in the city, the old town around the Musée national du château de Pau and the villa quarter to the east are close enough to cross on foot.