Discover Pau
Pau owes much of its success to the British . First came Wellington ’ s soldiers who passed through in 1856 after the Napoleonic wars and liked what they saw . Many of them never left , settling down and establishing France ’ s very first golf course . Scottish doctor Alexander Taylor extolled the virtues of the town ’ s clean air , and soon Europe ’ s well-todo were arriving to enjoy the dance evenings , hunting parties , and buzzing social scene .
Their Belle Epoque villas still dot the town and fringe the Boulevard des Pyrénées , brainchild of engineer Jean Charles Alphand . In 1891 , Alphand declared that ‘ Pau should have its Promenade des Anglais of Nice ’ and so he set about creating one .