Pau

Pau is a city in France. Check out the wikipedia articles in French or in English

History of Pau
More informations about the History of Pau on the Pau !

What to visit ?
More informations about the places to visit in Pau on the Pau !



Meetings
CS meeting in Pau on October 3rd. Venue: Jewlyz Sound @ 21h

Check out the Pau Group

For questions you can contact CS members:

- Maud, even though she is now living in Québec

- Adrien, often on the move but usually connected

- Tatiana, who lives in Pau

- ...

Other CS members in Pau, post a link to your profile here to show you are active and available to answer queries

Les Photos du Meeting au Jewlyz Sound : planteur et tapas, une soirée festive et chaleureuse à l'image du groupe de Pau !

 The Pau Meeting at the Jewlyz Sound : having fun with CS members !



Tips
The Pau.fr city webpage is fairly good, but in French only.

CHEMINS DE SAINT JACQUES:

People often come to Pau to reach the Chemins de St Jacques, en route to Spain. Access is usually from St Jean Pied de Port or Navarenx

- St Jean Pied de Port is accessed by train, via Bayonne (See "transportation" below). To get there you could land in Biarritz instead of Pau

- Navarenx is another story: take the Pau-Mauleon bus line with TPR (See "transportation" below), get of in Mourenx, and hitch/hike 10km to Navarenx...

Please look up info on specialized websites, and feedback any info and links that could be of use to other CS

Of course, don't hesitate to email the local CS for help!



SKI RESORTS:

Between 45 and 90 minutes from Pau are a few ski resorts:

For the main ones, check out Gourette, Luz Ardiden, Bareges-La Mongie-Tourmalet, Piau Engly, Peyragudes on www.n-py.com, another good one is Cauterets.

Best to contact local couchsurfers to check out buses/shuttles, or if they can take you there when they go. The snow can be fabulous, or really crap, it changes very quickly depending on the weather.

Weather and snow reports on MeteoFrance and Snow-Forecast

WIFI ACCESS:

The airport and the train station provide Wifi, otherwise you can go to main hotels.

Note: Please fill in if you know of bars/restaurants providing wifi

CYBERCAFES:

Cyber Café - 20 rue Lamothe - 05 59 82 89 40

Cyber Coyotte - 11 rue Duboué - 05 59 27 04 03

Cyber Modercom - rue Montpensier - 05 59 83 75 79

RESTAURANTS:

Les Amants du Marché: a very cosy Cafe-resto with bio and vegetarian food : so tasty ! You can eat there for lunch (menu 17 euros) or dinner (menu 22 euros) and also meals with different prices.

1, rue Bourbaki Place Foirail 64000 Pau Tel : 05.59.02.75.51

LA ROUTE DES VINS : le Jurançon

Regional treasure : white wine ! You must discover the taste of Jurançon.

Information may be found here : Coeur de Béarn

It is nice to go directly to the wine producer, instead of a cooperative. Driving throught the hills of Jurancon and Gan, you get past lots of them, usually open to visitors without reservation. Tried and tested : Le Clos Lapeyre and Cru Lamouroux

Note: Please feedback when you find a winetasting place that offers explanations in English



HIKING IN THE PYRENEES:

For your first time in the mountain, here is one of the best sites which provides a lot of good advices : Parc-Pyrénées

(Montain Leaders contact for hiking/trekking, places to sleep in each valley you may go...)

Tango Cité a brand new association for young people who are keen on trying tango dancing, let's have a go!!

web site in french only: Tango cité



Transportation
PLANE:

Pau Airport (PUF) has flights to/from Paris Orly, Paris Roissy CDG, Brussels South Charleroi, Amsterdam, London, Bristol, and Lyon, with AirFrance, Transavia, and Ryanair.

There is no shuttle service from the airport to the city, and a taxi to the train station or city center would cost around 20 euros. Check out the airport website for latest news and reservation/information numbers.

Email Pau couchsurfers to see if someone can be around to pick you up

Note that there are also many flights landing in Tarbes-Lourdes airport (LDE), which is only 30minutes drive away

TRAIN:

Pau is accessible from Paris by TGV via Bordeaux and Dax

To the west are Orthez, Bayonne, Irun and then Spain

To the east are Lourdes, Tarbes, Toulouse

The SNCF website is quite well done and very convenient, but... it's in French only! Ask a local couchsurfer to look it up for you if you don't understand French, as this website saves you a lot of hassle!

Note that SNCF will also provide buses to some places, these lines are included in the reservation website

BUS:

City buses, website with maps and timetables, in French

Buses to towns nearby: Check with TPR, no website found, only the phone number: +33(0)5 59 27 45 98

Citram takes you to/from places over 50km from Pau, including Ossau Valley and Gourette ski resort

OFFICIAL BUS PUBLIC NETWORK Economic & green way to walking on down town

TOP TEN OF SPOT DOWN TOWN
1 - AMPLI : lives

2 - Les papis insolite : restaurant, wine.

3 - Boulevard des pyrénées : point of view, bars. map

4 - Le mélies : French cinéma

5 - La tireuse : BELGIUM BEERS

6 - Ask for "LE quartier du triangle" : showtime, le garage, chupito

7 - CAFE BOOKSELLER : L'ENTROPIE

8 - The castel

In Case of Emergency

 * Police Station: 17
 * Health Urgency: 15 (at this number you speak directly to a Doctor who will coordinate help)
 * Fireman Station: 18
 * European Emergency Number: 112 (Police, Fire Brigade, Doctor, etc... all in one)

Media Mentions
If/When a local CS meet-up is organised, we can invite a few journalist friends to report (contact Adrien to organize).

Pau