At the confluence of a stream and a Pyrenean torrent, the viscount of Béarn equipped a market town with a protective fortified barrier. This town got its name from the stakes used to build its fences, pronounced " paû " in Bearnese. Béarn's capital, court for the Navarre kings, a protestant town, eventually returning to Catholicism, then recaptured by the English … twelve centuries have helped shape Pau.
Equipped with its dungeon by Gaston Phœbus, then metamorphosed into a renaissance palace by Henri II and Marguerite of Navarre, in 1553 the Pau castle provided shelter for the birth of the future Henri IV, who was rocked in a tortoise shell cradle! In 1620, in the town given to the catholic church by Louis XIII, convents flourished. Pau soon expanded beyond its old fortifications, which were soon to be destroyed.

Two centuries later, Napoleon's wars brought Wellington's soldiers to Pau, who were clearly seduced. Soon the benefits of the climate, so comfortable, attracted thousands of foreigners fleeing their harsh winters. The English set the mood here, leaving behind unmistakable signs of their presence: the first golf course on the continent, the St. Andrew's Anglican Church and nearly three hundred sumptuous villas and parks. Poets, notably Lamartine, were enthused by Pau, " the most beautiful view from land, just as Naples is the most beautiful view from sea".

At the dawn of the XXth. century, the Pyrenees boulevard, "sublime terrace", united the Castle and Beaumont Park, equipped with a leisure complex: the winter palace, current Beaumont palace. Its restoration, in 2000, symbolised how Pau regards its own patrimony: Respectful of its past but at ease in the present.
Twelve centuries of history to dream of, and this one yet to be invented. Pau.