Jeannine & Roger's French Cheese Odyssey

Pau 9th June

When we left home the weather was a hot and humid 28 degrees.

We are fast learning that hot ground temperature mixed with the cool air of the Pyrenees does not bode well for a day of outdoor activities. So when we stopped in the beautiful town of Navarrenx for lunch, we knew to do a quick round of the village before the rain came.

Cheese Experience No.49 - A cow, sheep and goat Panini The best shop in town offered a formula menu of a drink, oven roasted wedges and a Panini of three cheeses; no finer details, just one was goat, one sheep and the other cow. The lady wasn’t too keen on Roger’s French and suggested they should talk in English, but Roger insisted he needed to practise his French more than she needed to practise her English, so the rest of the conversation they jabbered away like a couple of native French.

Pau has an incredibly long and varied history, too much to mention here, so below is just a brief account of our day.

The Boulevard of the Pyrenees stretches for 1.8kms and has views out over the Pyrenees. Historically the city was built on two levels, the main town up hill and the industry downhill. A funicular was installed to get people up and down. To encourage people not to drive into the city, they charge a fortune for parking in the upper city and provide free parking at the base of the free funicular.

Back to the weather, the three photos show the effect of the warm weather meeting the Pyrenees

• Cloud and angry thunder forming

• The rain bucketed down, this time we were way smarter and sought shelter before it actually hit

• And this is what you do in the sanctuary of the Saint Martin Church; I think the Virgin Mary was giving Roger divine inspiration for his word puzzle

• Here is a nice picture of the church without pilgrims

Essence of France Photo Challenge No.19 - King Henry IV One of Pau's many famous claims is that King Henry IV of France was born here. He was known as Good King Henry or Henry the Great.

Like all of France’s Kings, marriage and fidelity was an issue; he married his second cousin but had the marriage annulled as he didn’t like her.
He wanted to marry his mistress who had already borne him 3 children but she died giving birth to the 4th.
So Henry married into the powerful Medici family gaining wealth from both Tuscany (her father) and Austria (her mother).

Lots of things bear his name and coat of arms in Pau and in France in general. Henry was assassinated at the age of 56, after 12 other attempts on his life, which they believed stemmed from his religious beliefs - baptised a Catholic, raised a protestant and then flipped back and forth to suit wars, reigns and other political gains.

Pau’s famous castle has 9 centuries of varied history, including being a home to King Henry IV and a holiday home to Napoleon. It has been lovingly restored with all its former glory and has beautiful tapestries I believe - I can’t verify that because you can only take guided tours in French, “no comprehend”. We hid in the courtyard from a passing shower and then had a quick walk around the gardens for free.

Once back at the car we headed off to the forest extension of the chateau gardens to do some more geocaching. The chap below was homeless, but we liberated a geocaching travel bug to find it a new home.

Our last photo, we found the giant kiwifruit!