Pau

Next stop: Pau. Destination: Château de Pau. This did prove to be slightly more difficult, as the way from the highway wasn't well signposted, and we ended up in some random area with heaps of one way streets. GPS came to the rescue, giving me an idea for a possible activity to do with the students!

Pau was definitely prettier than Lourdes. Quite liked the atmosphere of the place, actually. Saw a couple of posters in Occitan, the local language. Wandered for a bit, then decided that lunch was a good idea. But we were almost foiled. Am so unused to this idea of food pretty much only being served at meal times. Ie, if it's 2pm, you're going to struggle to find somewhere that's not fast food. Anywho, found a nice dude and got filled roll-ish thing and a fajita. And Orangina, cos that's always good! And, must say, it was all very tasty. So I was happy, but Nikolas was a bit peeved. Lol.
Oh, and joke of the day was that pizza seems to be a traditional French food. Everywhere we looked, there was a pizza place. Craziness!



Château de Pau tour was next on the agenda. It was in this castle that Henri IV, King of France, was born. Took heaps of pix here, so will be a bit hard to decide which to put up! Very grand inside, as you would expect. However, when Henri became King of France and headed off to Versailles, he took all his furniture with him (as you do). So, what's there now is more C19, from when Napoléon III lived there.

Tour all in French, but managed to get most of the important stuff. Nikolas was also good with repeating the most interesting info for me. Eg Henri IV had something like 56 mistresses. Must have been a busy man...

Ok, I think I've made the tough decision about which photos are best to show.



Unfortunately, I can't remember what this room was used for. I think it may have been for receiving guests. Anyway, you get an idea of the grandeur of the place. Check out the tapestries; at the time, they didn't hesitate to cut them down to size if it didn't fit their wall! Also learned that the people who worked on tapestries were a bit like the mosaicists. They specialised in faces, clothes, etc. That way, it didn't take a lifetime!



This is the room that Henri IV was born in, 13 December, 1553. The tortoise shell was his cradle; Nikolas said it was a tradition which is supposed to ensure a long life. As he pointed out, it didn't help Henri much, as he was assasinated in 1610.

We also got to see the dining/food storage room (with approx 6m thick walls), a kind of lounge (with some pretty impressive vases and a finely decorated sewing table), King's room (complete with a massive case for jewellery when travelling), Queen's apartment, a display of what I believe were chamber pots, and rooms full of very impressive historical pieces of art.



This was in one of the tapestries. Pukeko? (You're allowed to take pix of the tapestries, but no flashes. To preserve the colour.)

After a look at the (very geometrical) gardens, it was time to head back to Saint Gaudens. Had some fairly sweet views of the Pyrénées along the way, too. Great success!