Pau

Hello from Pau! We have had quite a busy week and therefore have a lot to fill you in on.

A brief summary of our schedule this week before sharing all of the fun details in the following posts.

Monday
Arrival in Pau, Rotarian Lunch, Professional Visit, Winery Tour, and Rotary Dinner Presentation
Tuesday
Winery Tour, Rotarian Lunch, Industry Visit, Rotary Dinner Presentation
Wednesday
Winery Tour, Cutural/Industry Visit, Rotarian Lunch, Driving Tour, and Cultural/Industry Visit, Walking Tour of Pau, Rotarian Dinner
Thursday
Drive to Oloron, Cultural/Industry Visit, Rotarian Lunch, Cultural Industry Visit, Cultural Visit, Rotary Dinner Presentation, 1 night in Oloron
Friday
Drive to Orthez, Walking Tour, Cultural Tour, Rotarian Lunch, Industry Visit, Rotary Dinner Presentation
Saturday
Free day to explore the region, which we were all very grateful for after such a full week.

We arrived at the Pau train station around 1PM on Monday and were greeted by Francois the President of Rotary Club Pau-Bearn. He took us back to his house for a wonderful home cooked meal and great conversation.

He is a Nephrologist and his family started the first Dyalisis Center of it's kind in France. So he kindly brought us for a tour of the site. Charity was particularly interested to see the technology being used at the facility and had a great discussion about the common technology challenges between France and the United States.

Francois then took us to the small family winery Clos Huste a beautiful wine region called Jurancon. Wine is a very large industry in the Pau area. Jurancon is particularly known for its sweeter white wines while the Bearn region is known for their reds wines. We tasted many white wines but learned that the the French tend to prefer reds. The Huste family were incredibly gracious hosts, and we were delighted that their pet cockatiel not only enjoyed visiting us, but had his own wine glass as well! The Huste wines were robust and flavorful, just like their creators.


Later that night we met, presented for, and had dinner with members of the Pau Jurancon Club, who would be our guides the following day.