Part 7 of 8 in my travel series from the summer of 2022.

Arriving in Pau (July 4th)

It was time to head back to a smaller town. We have nearly a week scheduled for relaxing in the town of Pau. Pau is a town at the foot of the Pyrenees that had a big British presence in the 19th century as a vacation location, with a huge expat community that made a big impact on what the town is like today.

While still on the outskirts of town, I asked Catherine what day we were supposed to return the rental car in Pau. She checked and of course it was today. Oh boy. And we didn’t know what time it was due. It didn’t seem to be in the paperwork. So we decided we should go straight to the Pau airport to return the car and then get a taxi to the Airbnb.

The Moment of Truth

So now was the moment of truth for the damage to the back bumper. Were we going to have to pay 1,500 euros? I employed a trick I have used in the past and unloaded the suitcases to block the view of it. The woman inspecting the car said nothing about it, so either that worked or she just didn’t care. It turns out we were 30 minutes late with the car and they charged us 30 euros.

Our taxi ride into town was pleasant enough, with the driver and Catherine exchanging a lot of French. He mentioned that Americans seldom come to Pau, and that in his five years as a taxi driver we were the first Americans he had ever driven.

Our 18th-Century Airbnb

Our Airbnb was an 18th-century fourth-floor walkup (up a narrow 400-year-old wooden spiral staircase), directly across the road from the château where King Henry IV was born. So needless to say the view was insane.

Boulevard des Pyrénées and the Château (July 5th)

We spend a lot of time just walking. I don’t really write that much about all the walking, nor about the countless cafés we have gone to. But in Pau there is the famous Boulevard des Pyrénées. It is a road (built at the instigation of the British) with a commanding view of the Pyrenees mountains. In the morning, we walked there (another heat wave is arriving across Europe) while it was still cool and ended up at a café on the boulevard for breakfast and coffee. I ordered a crepe with raspberries and mangoes. It turns out it was a crepe with raspberry sorbet and whipped cream. Yum, dessert for breakfast!

So intrigued by the château, we made it our first destination after breakfast. A funny thing happened there. All the rooms in the château have someone stationed in them to monitor it and to answer any questions. While we were in the first room, which contained a 19th-century model of the château and surrounding area (made by the caretaker from then), we started talking with the room monitor. The conversation lasted a good long while. As we were about to proceed to the next room, he offered to join us. This turned into a three-hour personal tour of the entire château. We got so much detail it was incredible (this time thankfully largely in English for my benefit). We came out of the other end of that tour feeling lucky that that had happened and realizing that without a guide so much of the significance of various things would have just been completely lost on us.

Exploring Pau’s Layers (July 6th)

Pau is a very visual town. There are a lot of tiers to the place which adds a great deal of dimensionality. There is an old riverbed (no longer with any water) that runs through the town, so there are a lot of bridges, but there are buildings down below in the riverbed as well. It really is a great place to roam around.

Dreaming of Retirement

One reason we decided to come to Pau is because it nearly tops many recent lists of places to retire or become an expat. We wanted to see if Pau might be a possibility for us. I have to say that it most definitely fits the bill. It is considered very affordable by French standards. The climate is mild year-round and it is close to the Pyrenees and Spain, or a short hop to the Mediterranean. Plus it is lively (in a good way) and beautiful. It seems to fit the bill. I am very serious about the possibility. Buying an apartment in the old center of town ranges from 75,000 to 130,000 euros. But given how hard it is for foreigners to get a mortgage (and French banks don’t want to generally do a loan for less than 150,000), we will have to save and buy in cash. So time to start filling the piggy bank.

I got the first pedicure of my life! Catherine and I found a place near the Airbnb and now I have shiny toenails. The poor woman had to deal with my feet.

A Day Trip to Bedous (July 7th)

We wanted to see a bit of the Pyrenees, so we booked a train ticket to the nearby village of Bedous. Wow, the train ride was beautiful and we disembarked in a town surrounded by mountains. And it just so happened to be farmers’ market day! We bought some things. Catherine bought a stunning and rather large mohair and silk scarf from a guy who later let me shoot his portrait. We visited the wacky café twice and we took a little hike in the heat to a little waterfall. We were there five or six hours before we got our return train.

I love riding trains in Europe. Seeing all the people getting on with bikes, or with backpacks and walking sticks, really made me want to explore. I had inquired about bike rentals at the main bike shop in Pau, but they said they were not renting any longer because it just wasn’t worth the hassle. I was bummed.

The Beaux-Arts Museum and Hédas (July 8th)

After having a crepe breakfast at the restaurant literally right outside our front door (this time without the sorbet and whipped cream), we walked the extensive gardens of the château before heading to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau. It is a lovely, but rather small museum, and despite being free, there were not that many visitors. One show they were having was a show of skateboard and record cover art by the Beautiful Losers crowd of artists. It seems like a rather hip show for the Beaux-Arts Museum. I hope it found its audience with some of the youth riding skateboards all over this town.

It feels like every time we go out we discover some new aspect of Pau. You think it is small and you would get it fast, but actually it reveals itself slowly. I love that about it. As of yet, we hadn’t really discovered the riverbed neighborhood known as Hédas. We discovered it in a really cool way. We followed a sign for a restaurant through a tiny passageway between two buildings. The stairs led down to the restaurant and then to this almost secret neighborhood. We felt like we entered a small town within a town. Wow, so cool.

Rest Day (July 10th)

It was very hot today. We did not do much of anything at all, just packed and relaxed. Catherine went to church and then we had breakfast together afterward. She went to an Anglican church so I got to hear about the British expats she met at church.