PAU

PAU, the chief town of the French department of Basses-Pyrénées, on the right bank of the Gave-de-Pau, 66 miles by rail ESE. of Bayonne and 143 SSE. of Bordeaux. It occupies a rocky height, 623 feet above sea-level, and commands towards the south most magnificent views of the serrated Pyrenees; indeed, for mountain scenery its situation is surpassed by no other town in France. The ancient capital of the kingdom of Béarn and French Navarre, it has a noble five-towered castle, rising to a height of 110 feet. Rebuilt about 1363 by Gaston Phœbus, Comte de Foix, and restored by Louis-Philippe and Napoleon III., this castle was the birthplace of Henri IV., as also of his mother Jeanne d'Albret; and Abd-el-Kader was a prisoner here in 1848. Bernadotte was likewise a native of Pau, which, beyond a statue of King Henri (1843), has nothing else calling for notice. Linen and chocolate are its chief manufactures; and in the vicinity Jurançon wine (good but strong) is grown, and many swine are fed, whose pork supplies the famous 'Jambons de Bayonne.' Pau is a great English resort, especially during the winter season (October to May), and is famous for its golf-links. Pop. (1872) 25,607; (1886) 28,864. See Count Henry Russell, Pau, Biarritz, and the Pyrenees (new ed. 1891).