National Museum and the Château de Pau - Official — Attraction in Pau

Four of us visited the chateau at about 4 pm on 17 September. We were told that only guided tours were allowed but the guide would do a commentary in French and English so we bought our tickets for the next visit at 10 to 5. The guide arrived and led us to the second room on the ground floor. There were about 15 people on the tour - us 4 English and the rest French. The guide made no effort to ascertain which country everyone was from and immediately launched into a long speech in French about the chateau in French which lasted about 15 minutes. At the end of the speech he started to lead everyone to the next room. When we asked about the English translation he said his English was not good enough but as we had English guide sheets to the chateau we could follow those. Throughout the one hour tour he did not bother to tell his which room we were in or to point out interesting features in each room. A thoroughly...

We enjoyed our visit to this castle-museum. So many places we ventured to we had problems finding a place to park the car. Here there were parking spaces all over - a welcome difference.

We may have missed some details about the place as the tour was only in French. But we did read a lot of the signs in English and listening and watching the guide was entertaining. Even not being a French speaker I could definitely tell the difference between his French and the French I was used to hearing in Northern France. He was.... quite animated in his hand gestures.

The birthplace of Henry the IV and founder of the House of Bourbon if I recall correctly. Lots of materials and furniture on exhibit. I wonder though how much survived the Revolution as I had been told in another tour once that most castles were ransacked. No matter, it is all a very nicely laid out and...

The castle and museum is an interesting visit, but the ticketing was a little confusing—even when we asked for clarification. You must be on a tour (only offered in French) and they open a tour every so often (regularly, but not quite set). Once open, they take 30 people for the next tour.

When we went we had just missed the previous tour, so waited about 20 minutes for the next tour to open. However, we then had to wait for it to fill to 30 people, so we waited another 15-20 minutes. You can’t book in advance, so it’s really luck of the draw when you arrive.

The tour was interesting and shared history of the castle. There are some beautiful tapestries and furniture, but we were missing some of the magic in seeing more objects...