help an ignoramus with pau/lourdes
 

my husband and me were planning to go for the may day weekend from london to pau but haven't a clue about the place and unfortunately there aren't too many deatils of the place on this forum.Since ryan air is offereing decently priced tickets, we were wondering if we culd make a great weekend out of it...Pl advise us on the place, day trips from the city and if it is possible to go to lourdes which i wuld absolutely love to.Both of us love the feel of small medieval cities and villages and I absolutely love the mountains and hills, having grown up in a city surrounded by hills. I have found this forum extremely helpful in the past so really hoping I get some great advise on this as well.It wuld make us decide on Pau versus other similar fare options such as Norway both of which we haven't seen.Thank you!!!

I'm actually going to stay in Pau in July for one night so we can drive to the fairly nearby Pyrenees National Park and also Lourdes.

You can reach Lourdes by rail (easily) from Pau as well.

Here's one of many websites which might give you some insight into the area.

http://www.enjoyfrance.com/directory.../18-0-Pau.html

We liked Pau when we were there, although we stayed in a village south of the city, with great views of the mountains, cows walking by every morning, etc. Not sure how you would do day trips other than by car, but it would probably be worth renting to get out into the great countryside.

However, I really don't recommend Lourdes. Having been raised a Catholic, I found it profoundly disturbing - even more commercial than I had expected. Rows on rows of plastic Madonnas of all sizes in virtually every street. I personally believe there is more sanctity and serenity in a small country church than in the whole town of Lourdes.

We live part of the year near Biarritz, witch is about 40 min. from Pau.
Pau is an interesting city with a breathtaking montain range as a backdrop. This is where Henry IV was born and his favorite wine, a delicate but powerful sweet white (the Jurancon) is still popular...
But, Pau, a lively University city, is still a somewhat provential, and is liquely to be rather dead over the may day holidays.

I fully indorse what Carlux sais about Lourdes.

As a follow-on to the post from Carlux:

I agree completely that the <b>town</b> of Lourdes itself is full of shops selling every conceivable sort of religious item to include bottles to take away the spring water, rosaries, miraculous medals, etc., etc. This is especially tru on the main street running from the SNCF station to the entrance to the site itself.

However, once you are on the grounds of the site itself all of that ceases and it is much more tranquil. But you'll find there could be, literally, thousands of pilgrims milling about, attending the various services, walking through the grotto itself, etc.

Rent a car and drive into the Pyrenees. From Pau you can go to Gabas on D934, take the cable car up and then a little train to the Lac d'Artouste. You could take a longer drive to the Cirque de Gavarnie, the fast way is via Lourdes, the more scenic way is over the Col de Souloir. Visit the church of St. Savin. The hamlet of Ch&egrave;ze, between Pierrefitte-Nestalas and Luz-St. Sauveur, has a nice chapel. The hamlet is off the main road (D921) on D12.

I'm with Dukey on the Lourdes site itself, if the religious aspect of Lourdes is of interest to you Jungli.

The sight of the many pilgrims and their devotions can be quite moving, as is the candle-lit procession in the evenings.

Otherwise, the surrounding region is quite beautiful, and you will find that medieval atmosphere in some of those villages, framed by the snow capped Pyrenees.

Pau is an absolutely lovely city, with fantastic mountain views and lots of nice shops, and places to chill. It's not really a &quot;doing things&quot; city, although there is the Castle. It's a mooching about place.

It's just north of Juranco where they make good white wine; and it's just south of Madiran, where they make enormous red wine. Either would be a good day trip.

They host a rugby team, which has just been relagated this season from Top 14 status to ProD2- but it's still agood team, and worth going to watch. And if you're as nutty as they are about rugby you can go up into the Adour and visitthe chapel of Notre Dame de Rugby.

It has a race course.

The little funicular railway runs from the railway station to the Boulevard des Pyrenees and is quite fun.

There is a miniature train trip which is meant to be quite fantastic from Pau up into the Val d'Ossau as far as the Lac d'Artouste

And finish your trip at a Spa. It'sa terrific experience.

Silly question from someone whose ignorance is about to become all too obvious: do they play rugby in August?

Is there racing in August?

The season starts in mid-August. But jungli's coming the May day weekend.

I'm struggling to see date as far away as August, but there are defintely races in September and there are almost 30 meetings a year, so it seems likely they race in August. It appears it's the second busiest racecourse in France