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BREAKING NEWS > Pau
and its surroundings |
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The city of our dreams would be active, modern, feel good, enjoy sport and be educated, dynamic and peaceful. Neighbouring it, there would be the countryside, the mountains and the ocean. It would have a strong and reactive economy. And why not as well a micro climate, palm-trees and cacti, palaces and castles, gardens and horses, a vibrant past, charm and projects. This town actually exists. It's called PAU. A little bit British, but strongly Béarnaise, proud of its past and well set in its era.
At the heart of a dynamic economic
structure
 Boasting
40 000 industrial jobs, experts at an international level
in various fields of activity, notably aeronautics, the
agro-industry, basic and fine chemicals, energy and petrol, Pau
and its suburbs are the third economic pole in the great South-West.
To prove its dynamism and desire to anticipate change in the field
of Information and Communication Technologies,
Pau is currently building a broadband network, from 10 to 100 Mb/s,
and it is proud to be one of the experimentation platforms for future
technologies.
Between mountains and ocean
A major city in the Southwest with 150 000 inhabitants,
Pau is in the center of a basin bordered by Bordeaux, Toulouse,
Zaragoza, Pampelune and Bilbao. With the Iberian countries having
joined Europe, the road to Spain now naturally passes through Pau
and the soon to be completed improvement of the road and freeway
networks to the airport have put Pau a strategic situation,
in the middle of Aquitaine and at the gates of Spain.
Between the mountains and the sea, benefiting from a microclimate,
a town of history, culture and sport, Pau offers a unique
quality of life. 45 minutes away from the nearest ski slopes,
55 minutes away from the Basco-Landaise coast, and one and a half
hours away from the Spanish border, Pau is a fulfilling
town, from both a personal and a professional standpoint.
In summer the weather is hot and dry, the temperature often rises
above 30°C. In July, the average temperature is 19.4°C.
The warm weather continues throughout autumn, lasting sometimes
into November. Winters in Pau are renowned for being mild, with
many sunny days; winters are rarely harsh, but sometimes temperatures
may reach as low as –2/-3°C, and sometimes even lower.
Due to its southern location, winter days last 50 minutes longer
than in Paris. Spring is quite wet. Bring along light, as well as
warm clothes.
A town for sport enthusiast
 Pau
is the Elan Bearnais’s den, king in its 7,500
seat Sport Palace, crowned 9 times Champion of France: it’s
obviously the Pau basket-ball team we are talking about. Pau is
also the meeting place of the Section Paloise,
the Pau rugby team which has been playing for more than 80 years
in the French rugby league top 16. The Pau Racing Grand
Prix is the big event of June: on one of the rare city
racing circuits in France, the best Car Racing world hopefuls compete
in F3, Grand Tourismo, Super GT, Formule Renault races. Pau has
also the Tour de France, the Davis Cup,
the Spring horse-racing competition and the October International
Gymkhana. There are many opportunities to go hiking, mountaineering
and caving in the Pyrenees. In fact, Pau was the
first European mainland city to have an 18-hole golf
course thanks to the presence of the English in the 19th century.
A town with a thriving culture
 In
the past Pau was the homeland of Henry IV, King of France and Navarre,
and of Bernadotte, King of Sweden. Today it is renowned for
its rich culture and history. PAU will take you through
a journey of time. If you have the culture bug, why not visit the
3 national museums: the castle of Henry IV, the
Art museum and its famous Degas painting and the
Bernadotte Museum. If you like music why not go
and see Ben Harper or Franz Ferdinand at the Zenith 6,500
seat concert hall. What about theatre and opera? Just go
down to the St Louis Theatre or the gardens of the Beaumont
Palace to enjoy open-air concerts and shows. For cinema
lovers, there are more than 20 screens for those who enjoy the Arts
or big blockbusters.
Students are everywhere
PAU has an outstanding science and technology university. 19
000 students, 3900 researchers, 4 Schools for higher education,
all spread out over 10 hectares, make PAU an unusual university
town. Studying at ESC PAU enables you to benefit from the wealth
of a large university. On the campus, you will be in daily contact
with students from different horizons : studying
law, biology, science, literature or in engineering schools. You
will be able to widen your circle of friends, compare different
points of view, and become more open to different mentalities, to
new professional and human approaches. |
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