The Organizing Committee gives you the opportunity, on tuesday afternoon, to visit one of two famous cities around Pau: Lourdes or Biarritz. You can also use this afternoon to have free time to visit Pau city and its surroundings or to have informal meeting with colleagues at the university. Please make your choice between Biarritz and Lourdes:
Visit of Biarritz (13:30 - 19:00)
Departure from Pau university - Science hall
The city of Biarritz is located roughly 100 km west of Pau and is easily accessible by highway. It is a large town of the "Côte Basque" near the Spanish border and is one of the most famous seaside resort in France. It came to fame in the mid 19th Century, when Empress Eugenie (the wife of Napoleon III) fell in love with this part of the Basque country and built a Palace on the beach at Biarritz (now called Hotel du Palais) where she invited foreign royalty to stay. The Russian nobility built their own magnificent Orthodox Church next to the Palace. The principle Architecture in Biarritz was not typically Basque, but rather a blend of 19th century city residences, large and expansive, made of local stone bricks.
With its large beaches and powerful waves, Biarritz welcomed Europe's first surfers to its beaches 45 years ago and nowadays it is still a famous spot to go surfing in Europe.
Visit of Lourdes (13:30 - 19:00)
Departure from Pau university - Science hall
Lourdes is one of the main Catholic sanctuaries in the world. This city is located about 40 km east of Pau. Lourdes was just a small market town at the foot of the Pyrénées in 1858 when a peasant girl (Bernadette Soubirous) had several Virgin Mary sightings. From a tiny village, the city has become the second most popular tourism city in all of France, attracting six million pilgrims annually from throughout the globe to the cave where Bernadette Soubirous had several sightings. Nowadays, the primary Lourdes attractions are the cave where the sightings occured and the Basilica of the Rosary built to watch over it. This Romanesque style cathedral is one of the largest in all the world.
