|  With its back turned to the foothills of the Pyrenees and facing the Atlantic swell (42,000 inhabitants), Bayonne is a land of contrast that belongs both to Gascony and the Basque country.
An artistic city with a rich architectural heritage that has been preserved through the centuries, it is also a cultural centre which offers visitors the Basque and Bayonne History Museum, Bonnat Museum and Museum of Natural History.
Famous for its friendly pedestrian streets and bustling commerce, for the variety of its restaurants and hotels, Bayonne is also well known for its traditions: ham fair, chocolate, bullfighting, pelota, rugby and rowingÉ and how can one not mention its traditional festivities which every year attract more than one million visitors. Welcome to Bayonne!
 «Pau is the most beautiful town viewed from the land just as Naples is the most beautiful viewed from the sea». Lamartine
A prefecture of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques and capital of Béarn, laying on the Gave de Pau. 84,000 inhabitants (including suburbs 145,000).
Ideally situated at the foot of the Pyrenees, with its strategic position, history and list of winners, Pau is an unavoidable historic stage of the Tour de France.
A sporting town, both in terms of the diversity of sports practised (70) as the renown of its top-flight clubs (Rugby: Paloise section; Basketball: Elan Béarnais Pau-Orthez; Football: Pau FC), the town is delighted to welcome the Tour Stage, a race reserved for amateurs.
The town’s temperate climate won over the English who introduced golf to Pau in the middle of the 19th century. The most «British of French towns», it was cradle to King Henry IV, Bernadotte, Marshal of the Empire and future king of Sweden and Norway and Henrick de Monpezat Prince-consort of Denmark.
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