PAU

What a colourful painting! In this part of the southwest, along the Pyrenees mountain chain, everything starts with an accent that is hot and rough at the same time. This music comes down from the mountains, spoken by shepherds and peasants. It is grounded in the earth, with its eyes open to the sky. While visiting Pau, Tarbes, and Lourdes, you will find yourself in a golden triangle of hospitality, exemplified by a return to nature and a certain spirit, or rather a spirit that is certain.

Bearn and Navarre are historical lands charged with the blood of their great historical past. The knight Gaston Phoebus, King Henry IV, and also D'Artagnan of the Three Musketeers are all from here. Their humanity permeates the Bearn and Navarre. If you come here once, you will return, as it is impossible to resist this grandiose and beautiful mountain range.

By climbing, the legs get lighter, finding again a taste for the effort of walking, because then comes comfort. From the medieval town of Lescar, to the glorious fortified castle overlooking Lourdes and its sanctuary (the most important destination for Christian pilgrims), from the Gavarnie Cirque to the Pic-du-Midi, whose raw beauty attracts tourists from all over the world, the region is replete with sights more canonical than the next.

The mountains are impressive but not intimidating; they are neither invincible nor inhospitable, just wild. They do not separate France and Spain; they bring them together through the solidarity shared by the people of these mountains , all subject to the same implacable laws of nature. Their winds blow down the valley, breathing on a plain just waiting to receive, in order to give even more.