Au revoir, St. Jean de Luz. We’ll be back some day, I hope. But for now, it’s time to hit the road to Carcassonne. We’ll stop for lunch in Pau. It’s a beautiful day for a drive through the French countryside, so let’s go. Allons!
Carcassonne is 250 miles from St. Jean de Luz. We’ll take A2 autoroute most of the way, heading east, running parallel to the French/Spanish border and the Pyrenees mountains.
The Basque city of Pau is on the way, so we’ll stop there for lunch. I remember seeing Pau while watching the Tour de France. It looked like my kind of place. Now I’ll get to see it up close.
La Belle France
Driving through the French countryside is so nice. France is a beautiful country. No wonder people have been fighting over it ever since there’ve been people to fight over it.
Our route has the added bonus of the snow-capped Pyrenees mountains coming in and out of view off in the distance. The rest of the scenery is green fields, orchards, and vines. Beautiful.
But something is missing… where are all the billboards? How will I know how far it is to the next McDonalds? How will I know which ambulance-chasing lawyer to call if we wreck the car?
Maybe billboards here are prohibited by law. Don’t know. But it’s nice to see nothing but unobstructed countryside as we cruise along.
We arrived in Pau at lunchtime. When you’re traveling in France, plan to be at a major destination around lunchtime. Smaller towns close down around 1:00 PM. You might be relegated to having a bottle of wine and a bag of the French version of Cheetos for lunch.
Pau
Pau is the largest city in Béarn, a region in the southwest corner of France. Béarn is part French and part Basque, so as one might imagine, it’s a foodie destination. It’s overshadowed by more well-known French food and wine regions, but they still have sauce Béarnaise. Can’t take that away.
The French have been big into aviation from way back. After Paris, Pau was Aviation Central in France. Some of the world’s first balloonists lifted off from Pau.
In the early 20th century, when powered aviation was just taking off, (ahem), news of the Wright Brothers’ successes reached France. French aeronautical engineers thought they were probably charlatans. The Wright brothers made a trip to Paris and wowed the nay-sayers.
The Wright brothers went on to make demonstration flights near Pau. They even helped set up the world’s first aviation school here. The Pau airport is on the site of that school.
Pau-er Lunch
Boulevard des Pyrénées is a street in Pau that skirts the edge of a cliff. From there, off in the distance, the Pyrenees mountains are in plain view. Perfect place for a restaurant.
We had an excellent lunch at L’Aragon Brasserie while looking out at the view. You know you’re in foodie country, (and in France), when duck confit is available on the lunch menu. I had to have it. Mmmm.
After lunch and a short walk around Pau, we got back on the road to Carcassonne. Just two hours to go now.
To be continued…
