Pau: where the Pyrenees seem within reach

Birthplace of Henry IV of France, Pau offers from its panoramic terrace a view of the snow-capped Pyrenees considered among Europe's most beautiful.

The centre, overlooking a natural balcony with views of the Pyrenees, is easily explored on foot.

The Castle of Pau, where the future King Henry IV was born in 1553, preserves Renaissance tapestries and the cradle of the sovereign's infancy, made from a turtle shell.

Just steps away, the Boulevard of the Pyrenees, a panoramic terrace nearly two kilometers long, offers on clear days a view across the entire Pyrenees mountain range.

Continuing on, one visits the Castle Park, an English-style garden designed in the nineteenth century with ancient trees and shaded paths, popular among local families.

Toward evening, Pau recalls its pioneering role in European golf history, introduced by the British community resident here as early as the mid-nineteenth century.

The golf club of Pau, founded in 1856 by the numerous English and Scottish community residing in the city, remains the oldest continuously active golf course in continental Europe.

On the clearest days, from the Boulevard des Pyrénées one can make out snow-capped peaks over a hundred kilometers away in a straight line, a panorama that already amazed nineteenth-century Romantic travelers.