Pau is an interesting town. We had passed by it many times, even stay in quick night hôtels on the town,especially for the tour de France bike race; but never really wandered about it, and we decided that after so many choices we have here to pick one that we have not seen fully; so therefore, this is my take on curiosities of Pau, part II !!! Hope you enjoy it as I.
The City/Town Hall and the Saint-Louis theater are part of a building located on Place Royale. The latter, built from 1854 to 1862, accommodated the theater in 1862, then the municipal services, from 1878. The current location of the building is initially intended to accommodate a new church dedicated to the worship of Saint-Louis. On April 28, 1876, the municipal council therefore ratified the decision to buy the Saint-Louis theater and its outbuildings. In the fall of 1878, after development work, the City/Town Hall took possession of the premises and still occupies them today. The Saint-Louis theater opened its doors in 1862, replacing the main theater in the city which was then located at number 4 of the Place Gramont, now destroyed, and of which only the facades and a few decorations remain. The 300-seat room is decorated in the Second Empire style. The theater, now 430 seats strong, reopened in 1984, and hosted a number of shows and performances until it was closed again on October 25, 2013, when the condition of the hall was again deemed worrying, following the fall of part of the decor of one of the boxes, In June 2016, reopens again ,and now hosts both dance performances, concerts and plays, as well as conferences.
The city of Pau on its theater Saint Louis: https://www.pau.fr/le-saintlouis-beau-theatre-a-litalienne
To stayed in town our favorite chain is Ibis of the chain Accor; and here we chose the Ibis Budget Pau Est,wonderful service by manager Véronique and great stay easy on and off from the highways and straight down the city center of Pau. For reference their webpage: https://all.accor.com/hotel/3498/index.en.shtml#origin=ibis
We had to tell you about the castle museum of Pau; (see post). The gardens are great wonderful views over the Pyrénées mountains and well maintained. We took a quick peek at the museum of Bernadotte, (see post) the birthplace of this Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte chosen by Napoleon I to secure the continuation of the royal house of Sweden in 1818 he finally became the king of Sweden, today the current king Gustav is a descendant Bernadotte. We visited the boulevard des pyrénées famous look over the mountains and took the funiculaire or cable car up and down;and it is free!!! (see post) . We went to several wonderful churches such as Saint Martin, Saint Jacques, and the religious Library now of the Church of Reparatrice. We did our shopping in the Auchan cc near us, wonderful place with all you need including micromania hehehe and Flunch restos , nice refreshing site to relax after a long day of sightseeing.
Of course we ate out, and the best there was pizzeria l’Etna at rue Sully, very nice folks and great food at reasonable prices. Even thus some of the rating is average 3 out of 5 we found it above average for the price, quality, excellent service, and quick.
We did lots of eating in house, buying at the Auchan cc or the covered market Halles in Pau is excellent fresh produce great quality and good prices for take home from veggies to wines; every day except sundays and at place de la République, now totally renovated! (see post). We did our shopping of goodies here mostly the kids bought stuff like foot locker,fnac, micromania, lacoste and hugo boss, we settle for the food, chocolates !!! the L’Atelier du Chocolat at Maréchal Joffre is excellent, we got the touron basque or the basque nougat.
Also, at the palais des pyrénées shopping center where FNAC ,Micromania are located off place Clemenceau you find the Chocolaterie de la Couronne, here we went for the suedoise or swedish and the pallet des pyrénées, delicious, try it.
We did took a peek at the Galeries Lafayette store at place Clemenceau, and had our cold beers at the Café de l’Europe just there too at rue Maréchal Foch with nice fast friendly service. We had many nice experiences here and several posts ,one particular one was having some beers at the La Brasserie Royale in the place Royale. The
Place Royale is the central point of the city, it is notably bordered by the City/Town Hall of Pau, by the old Hôtel de France and by the Boulevard des Pyrénées. La Brasserie Royale , historical chic good ambiance right on the square Place Royale. The official La Brasserie Royale: http://brasserie-royale.com
The Pau tourist office on its heritage:https://www.pau-pyrenees.com/home/notre-patrimoine
The city of Pau on cultural offerings: https://www.pau.fr/article/pau-capitale-humaine
There you go folks, we even went to Spain on one day trips from our base in Pau. Great family trip, and good driving all the way with little or no traffic. Again, hope you enjoy this post on curiosities of Pau, part II !!! as I.
And remember, happy travels good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 