Gateway to the Pyrenees

Today's stage 13 of the Tour de France took place in the heart of the Pyrenees. It started in the beautiful town of Pau (Po), birthplace of King Henry IV and of Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, Marshall of France in the Army of Napoleon and later King of Sweden and Norway. Pau is majestically situated in a plateau overlooking the Gave de Pau and benefits from a mild climate in which plants grow abundantly, in fact in the 19th century English well to-do travelers made Pau a resort destination and built here the first golf course on the continent. Pau has been on the Tour de France circuit 63 times making it one of its most popular stages.