4 Best Sights in Pau, The Basque Country, Gascony, and Hautes-Pyrenees

Pau's regal past is commemorated at its Musée National du Château de Pau, begun in the 14th century by Gaston Phoebus, the flamboyant count of Béarn. The building was transformed into a Renaissance palace in the 16th century by Marguerite d'Angoulême, sister of François I. A woman of diverse gifts, she wrote pastorals, many performed in the château's sumptuous gardens. Her bawdy Heptameron—written at age 60—furnishes as much sly merriment today as it did when read by her doting kingly brother. Marguerite's grandson, the future king of France Henri IV, was born in the château in 1553. Exhibits connected to Henri's life and times are displayed regularly, along with portraits of the most significant of his alleged 57 lovers and mistresses. His cradle, a giant turtle shell, is on exhibit in his bedroom, one of the sumptuous, tapestry-lined royal apartments.

There are splendid views of the peaks of the Pyrénées all the way along this promenade, just under a mile long, which extends from the Château to the Palais Beaumont. A free funicular, with its top station in the middle of the boulevard, connects the city center with the railroad station beneath.

For some man-made splendors, head to the Musée des Beaux-Arts and ogle works by El Greco, Degas, Sorolla, and Rodin.

The "King's Path" is a marked trail just below Boulevard des Pyrénées. At the top, near the Boulevard Aragon, look for the map identifying the main peaks of the Pyrenees in the distance.