Tournay.—A small town; is without any particular interest.
Lannemezan.—A small town, with a church partly Romanesque.
Montrejeau.—Picturesque little town; castle keep now the church tower; quaint market-hall on pillars; arcaded houses.
PAU
In its situation Pau is most fortunate, for, being raised high above the rushing Gave, the views of the splendid chain of white mountain peaks are uninterrupted, and most of the modern hotels have their balconies commanding the great panorama of the Pyrenees, with the Pic du Midi d’Ossau in the centre. The impressive scenery, coupled with a mild and genial climate and much winter sunshine, has lifted Pau from the obscurity into which history had allowed it to fall into one of the most popular inland resorts in France.
Town Plan No. 16.—Pau.
It is a clean and healthy town, having had much attention paid to its sanitation, the authorities knowing that the English and American visitor has a strong antipathy to a tainted atmosphere. The town even has a supply of pure drinking-water, and besides the indoor attractions of a modern Winter Palace, there are golf, tennis, polo, and a pack of foxhounds.
There is a season all through the year, for tourists follow the winter visitors; then there are the crowds of the ‘faithful’ on their way to Lourdes, and those who come to immerse themselves in the thermal waters for which the Pyrenean range is famous.
In its history Pau is chiefly interesting during the sixteenth century. Before that there was a fortress rebuilt between 1373 and 1380 by Gaston Phœbus, the keep of which can be seen to-day; but Pau only rose to importance when it became the capital and the residence of the Sovereigns of Béarn.