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Pau (Chief town of the French)

the chief town of the French department of Basses-Pyrénées, on the right bank of the Gave-de-Pau, 66 miles E. S. E. of Bayonne and 143 S. S. E. of Bordeaux. It occupies a rocky height, 623 feet above sea-level, and commands toward the S. most magnificent views of the serrated Pyrénées. The ancient capital of the kingdom of Béarn and French Navarre, it has a noble five-towered castle, rising to a height of 110 feet, rebuilt about 1363 by Gaston Phœbus, Comte de Foix, and restored by Louis- Philippe and Napoleon III. Linen and chocolate are its chief manufactures; and in the vicinity Jurançon wine is grown, and many swine are fed, whose pork supplies the famous hams of Bayonne. Pop. about 40,000.