Part 3 Day 14b/15 - Morláas to Pau

There is a short bus from Morlaas to Pau which runs hourly and normally takes 20 minutes. After walking into Morlaas and finding the right bus line I discovered that a portion of the town was torn up and the bus line I was interested in was affected by the construction. I passed by two stops that clearly indicated they were impacted,, but with no date given as to when they would resume service. There had been three teenagers waiting with me at the stop that looked promising, and when we discovered that out stop (the third I had tried) did not appear to be serviced, we trudged uphill to a fourth stop where a huge crowd of young people waited to catch the bus into town. 

I made my way to the Hotel de Gramont, an aging grande dame located near the Château de Pau where I would find my friend Judy waiting for me.

That evening, at a Gascon restaurant not far from our hotel I ran into the German/Dutch couple Dagmar and Franck who I had shared the Gite communal in Anoye. I hadn't really had the opportunity to wish them well as they had left before I did, so was so happy to see them. And Dagmar let me know I could get an additional stamp for my creanciale in the Eglise St Jacques, which I would do the following day.

In visiting the church the next day I would learn that this Eglise Saint-Jacques was relatively recent, built in 1868, was neo-Gothic in style, with some paintings alluding to the Saint. There was also an 18c altar from a former pilgrim hospital.

Pau is a lovely town with a resort atmosphere, once alive with expats and now bursting with young people. In the 1930s the British discovered Pau and turned it into a prestigious thermal center, visited by numerous tuberculosis patients, with walks, parks, hotels and casinos.

The Béarn region (the departmental capital of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques) has. since 1512, been thr residence of the Albret family, last kings of Navarre  who after losing the southern part of the kingdom settled in the Béarn, among them Jean III, Henri II, Jeanne III and especially Henri III, first Bourbon who would end up being king of France (Henri IV), who was born in the city in 1553.

The main monument of the city is the château where Henri IV was born. 

Since the weather was nice the two of us spent time exploring the town, is Château its gardens, and its fantastic views of the Pyrénées.