Henri IV's castle, Béarnaise sauce, and the finest Pyrenean panorama in France — a city the English invented
Pau is the capital of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques — a genteel southwestern French city that was effectively invented as a winter resort by the English in the 19th century (they built the first golf course on continental Europe here in 1856 and a horse-racing track soon after). The city is the birthplace of Henri IV (1553–1610), the most beloved French king, and the origin of Béarnaise sauce (named for the Béarn region of which Pau is the historical capital). The Boulevard des Pyrénées — a 1.8km clifftop promenade — offers one of France's most celebrated views: on clear winter mornings, the entir…
Pau was the capital of the independent Béarn viscountcy — one of the most unusual polities in medieval France, which maintained effective autonomy until Henri IV inherited both Béarn and Navarre, then united them with France. Henri IV (born in Pau Castle, 1553) became France's first Bourbon king, ended the Wars of Religion with the Edict of Nantes (1598), and remains the only French king widely remembered with genuine popular affection. The British colony that arrived in the 1830s for the mild winter climate transformed Pau into a Franco-British social experiment — they introduced fox hunting…