The Béarn (in Gascon/Inhabitant of Béarn Bearn or Biarn ) French province is old a located at the foot of the the Pyrenees. It forms with the Low-Navarre , the Labourd and the Soule (composing the Basque Country French) the department of the Yrénées-Atlantiques (64), of which it occupies the 3/5 of the territory. Béarn counts 350.000 inhabitants and its capital is Pau.

Geography

Limits

Béarn is limited to the west by the Soule and the Low-Navarre , to north by the Landes and the Armagnac, to the east by the Bigorre and to the south by Aragon (Spain).

Aspect

While entering in Béarn by the North-East, one finds:

  • a line of North-South directed hills: hills of Montanérès, the Vic-Bilh and the Soubestre traversed by small affluents of the Adour: the Gabas, the Luy de France and the Luy de Béarn.

  • the valley of the Gave of Pau (Orthez, Artix, Pau, Nay) the most populated zone.
  • Slopes of Between-two-Gaves (Jurançon).
  • the valley of the Gave d' Oloron (Oloron-Holy-Marie, Navarrenx, Sauveterre-with-Béarn).
  • 3 valleys in the Pyrenees inhabitants of Béarn (Haut-Béarn):
    • the Valley of Ossau (Pourtalet, 1  794 m) dominated by the Peak of the South of Ossau.
    • the Valley of Winder (Somport, 1  650 m) opening on Haut-Aragon.
    • the Valley of Barétous opening on the Navarrese valley of Roncal.
    • One can add to it the valley of the Ouzom leading to the Bigorre via Ferrières, Arbéost and the Col of Soulor.

The Pyrenees inhabitants of Béarn go, of west in is, the Pic of Annie (2  504 m) with the Peak Palas (2  974 m) which is the culminating point of the department.

Climate

Béarn knows a variation of altitude of almost 3000 meters between the highest point low and.

There is not thus only one climate. The average temperature drops since the plains until the most raised tops, where it can snow in the middle of the summer.

The temperature known as normal is that of the plains: it is exceptionally soft. The climate of Gironde has several characteristics:

  • equality of temperature
  • softness
  • frequency of the rains.
The beauty of the sky especially in autumn, is impressive: it is the Beth Ceu of Pau claironné high and strong.

History

See also: History of Béarn

Though Béarn was included in the original borders given to the kingdom of France by the Traité of Verdun in 843, the effective membership of Béarn to the kingdom was discussed a long time. When Béarn belonged to the counts de Foix, the count Gaston Fébus lends to the king the homage for his Comté of Foix, but refuses it for Béarn which he affirms to hold into clean. Later, the province is in the inheritance of the kings of Navarre, and this membership of foreign sovereigns (though resulting from the dynasty capétienne. ), even if it is not incompatible with the French character of the province, contributes to the doubt. Finally, Béarn falls to Henri IV by maternal heritage (at the same time as a Royaume of very theoretical Navarre, since almost entirely annexed by the Spain). After its accession with the throne of France, Henri IV yields to the insistent request Parliament and joins together its patrimonial fields with the crown (Vendômois, Rouergue, Périgord), in accordance with the tradition which wants that the king of France does not have a personal field. Nevertheless, the Sovereignty of Béarn and the Low-Navarre will preserve their statute of sovereign country. It is only into 1620 that Louis XIII will attach Béarn to the crown of France by the Edict of October 1620: Edict of Louis XIII of glorious memory of the month of October 1620 per which it has uny the Kingdom of Navarre and the sovereignty of Béarn to the crown of France, with reserve right express of their fors franknesses and immunities which inviolablement will be kept and observed . The legal documents thus continue to be there written in Béarnais (variety of Gascon) until the French revolution.

Population

  • Béarn includes/understands approximately 350.000 inhabitants divided in 387 communes themselves gathered in 31 cantons and 2 districts (Oloron-Holy-Marie - sub-prefecture and Pau - prefecture). Recently came to superimpose itself on these administrative entities, the Communities of Communes.

Pau only gathers with it 82.500 inhabitants (second town of Aquitaine) and 182.000 (INSEE 1999) if one counts the suburbs (troisème agglomeration of south-west after Toulouse and Bordeaux).

The valley of Winder suffers from the emigration; there are nothing any more but 2.500 inhabitants in this so alive and splendid valley. On another side the Valley of Ossau is under development strong with tourism of the ski stations (Gourette, Artouste, Pourtalet), the thermal spas (Water-Good, Water-Heats) and the country holidays (cliff with the vultures, water running sports, cultural tourism and gastronomical).

Orthez, Oloron are exceeded soon by the commercial and residential suburbs of Pau: Billère, Lescar, Lons.

Transport

The Spain is close. The Tunnel of Somport is open (although the trucks cannot pass each other in the road which goes up there). Pau and Béarn, constitute an interesting crossroads between Spain, Italy and the Paris region, without speaking about industrial Northern Europe (the Ruhr, Bénélux).

Béarn has an airport, connections TGV, which give him assets, an enviable situation: heart of Aquitaine and doors of Spain.

Pau is with:

  • 107 km of Bayonne
  • 200 km of Bordeaux
  • 200 km of Toulouse
  • 756 km of Paris
  • 45 minutes of the first ski station

The the Pyrenees being passable only by some not very travelling collars in its central part, or by the 2 ends, Béarn needs to be disenclosed. Various projects succeeded:

the A64
the Tunnel of Somport
others are thus considered:
a loop line of Aire-sur-l'Adour;
a more travelling way between Pau and Bordeaux;
a more travelling way between Pau and Oloron-Holy-Marie;
a more travelling way between Oloron-Holy-Marie and the entry of the Tunnel of Somport;
a line shoed between Jaca (Aragon) and Pau;

The highway network

  • the A64 makes Toulouse and Bayonne very close.

  • the Tunnel of Somport makes it possible to unchoke the Col of Somport and to offer an alternative to a passage towards Spain on the two sides of the Pyrenees: Irun - Hendaye and Perthus.
  • Soon (?), an improvement of the axis Tunnel of Somport - Oloron-Holy-Marie - Pau - Aire-sur-l'Adour (RN134) would succeed, fluxing an strategic axis.

The rail network

  • a west-east line: Irun - Vintimille; very attended, connecting the Spain to the Italy by Bayonne, Pau, Toulouse, Montpellier, Marseilles, Nice.
  • a North-South line: Paris - Tarbes; line TGV Paris by Bordeaux then Dax
  • a local line: Pau - Oloron-Holy-Marie; remainder of the Line Pau-Canfranc.

The plane

  • International airport of the Pau-Pyrenees to Uzein, located at 7 km in the North-West of the city

Economy

Béarn is an area whose economic activity is based on 4 great sectors:
    • oil and Total gas
  • Exploration Production France (TEPF) installed with Lacq - Activity = Oil - 970 paid - Layer of Natural gas of Lacq;
    • chemistry and petrochemistry
  • Arkema installed with Lacq and Mount - Activity = chemistry
  • scientific Center and technical Jean Feger, of the oil group Elf become Total - Activity = Performances of service - 1.700 paid including 900 researchers;
    • mechanical
  • Turboméca installed with Border - Activity = terrestrial and maritime aeronautical turbines - 2.191 paid;
  • Messier-Dowty installed with Bidos - Activity = equipment of gears landing - 850 paid;
    • agroalimentary
  • Euralis installed with Lescar - Activity = seeds cereals - 665 paid;
  • Cheese dairy of Thatches (Bongrain) installed to Jurançon;
  • Agro-alimentary Alliance installed with Billère;
  • Lindt and Sprungli AG installed with Oloron-Holy-Marie - Activity = chocolate factory - 527 paid;
  • the ''' vine growing ''' (mainly around Jurançon and Monein in 25 communes located at the west and the south of Pau, in a rectangle Pau - Lasseubetat - Navarrenx - Lagor between the Gave of Pau and of Oloron, the Wine trail of Jurançon;

Are grafted around other branches of industry:

    • the building
  • Farmhouse
  • Cancé
    • textile industry
The beret, which, as its name does not indicate it, is of origin inhabitant of Béarn. Formerly flourishing, this activity underwent full whip the crisis of textile industry. Today, there remains only one company with Oloron Béatex, employing approximately 80 people whose creations under the mark Pierre Laulhère are known and recognized in the whole world.
    • tourism;
    • various industries and services;

See also: List of the companies of Béarn

    • To consult CCI of Pau

Culture

Language

  • the inhabitant of Béarn is the whole of the speeches Gascon S spoken in Béarn, and the Gascon belongs to the language Occitan E . It had been the native tongue formerly, very widespread sixty more years ago, then in disuse, before reappearing for thirty years. As of the end of the XIXe century, and especially since the end of the year 1970, Béarn is one of the most dynamic poles of the movement occitanist. The writers inhabitant of Béarn have a dominating place, even central, in the contemporary literature in Gascon.
The Calandretas (in Gascon, " small alouettes") are the bilingual schools occitanes appeared in Béarn in 1979 and spread today in all Occitanie. It is the equivalent occitan Breton Diwan, Ikastola S Basque or Bressoles north-Catalan women.

Historically, the language inhabitant of Béarn was employed in the official texts with French (see history part) until the Revolution. to see the inhabitant of Béarn

  • French was imposed by the State like single official language in 1789. Since the XXe century, its use became majority.

Use of the language

A survey of 1982 in Béarn indicates that 51% of the population speak inhabitant of Béarn, 70 per 100 includes/understands it, 85 per 100 is favorable to the safeguard of the language.

  • to see internal bonds Gascon - school Calandreta

Coloured expressions

Di (E) U Alive! βiˈβan is an expression Béarnais E.

Origin
The initiative comes from Jeanne d' Albret. She returned an ordinance on the way of lending oath in justice, whereas the Inhabitants of Béarn swore on the cross and the missal.

They had from now on to raise the hand and to swear in the name of the alive God .

It is a testimony of a strong will of a personality with strong character. Jeanne de Navarre sought the recovery of manners and a purer religion, a less corrupted life. She drove out the catholics, transformed Béarn into a bastion of a reforming religion…

This expression is thus not purely anecdotic…

It is as with its words as Henri IV took the head of the armies…

And it is of course also the origin of the swearword of the good inhabitant of Béarn who asserts himself like such today!! Di (E) U Alive!!

Gastronomy

Béarn, offers all the gastronomical specialities of south-west:
  • crystallized Foie gras, , steaklet and other dishes derived from duck;
and it developed some specialities:
  • Boiled chicken;
  • Garbure ;
  • the cheese of Ewe " Ossau Iraty" , whose name of controlled origin is for more half out of ground inhabitant of Béarn
  • the Jurançon, famous dry or marrowy white wine.

And you will want to note that the B3earnaise sauce does not have anything inhabitant of Béarn… whereas the beret, is to him inhabitant of Béarn!

Structure

See also: House inhabitant of Béarn

  • Like the etxe, the Basque House, the oustau inhabitant of Béarn (the put in the valleys) is the angular stone of the identity of the family. Each life was tended towards this goal: to ensure perenniality

The social hierarchy was established on the basis of “oustau” or “put it” transmitted with the whole of the property to the elder one. The house inhabitant of Béarn is built with rollers of the Gave gray in the mortar. Tiles punts or more frequently of slates are present on the roofs. One of the essential characteristics of the house inhabitant of Béarn is thus her roof: the slope can reach 50°, or even more.

In the Basque Country as in Béarn, the houses vary according to the valleys, the geographical surfaces…

The peak of the South of Ossau, symbol of Béarn

  • Located in the department of the Yrénées-Atlantiques in Béarn Aquitanian area , the Vallée of Ossau is a glaciated valley which offers its emblem to Béarn: the Peak of the South of Ossau. It is called the Jean-Pierre , which is a deformation of the qualifier the stone giant unless it is not about the association of the two first names Jean and Pierre, traditional first names given to the two first wire in the inhabitants of Béarn families living the Vallée of Ossau.

The emblem of the valley of Ossau: the bear and the cow are represented on the frontage of the town hall of Aste-Béon.

According to the legend, the Viscount of Béarn defied the Archevêque Morlaàs which raised a Ours, while supporting to him that one of its Vache S would carry it with the combat, which occurred. Symbol of pastoralism, the cow is queen in the heart of the Inhabitants of Béarn. It is about a cow of pure race inhabitant of Béarn. The Inhabitants of Béarn are satisfied that it is represented on their blazon and to be there comparable, because it is a robust animal, proud, generous, having a great mind of abnegation.

Inheritance

  • the Castle of Pau and the historical quarters

  • the Boulevard of the Pyrenees
  • the Beaumont palate and the casino of Pau
  • the Funicular of Pau
  • the Quoted of the bees: at the same time a museum and a park of walk devoted to the bee and its environment
  • the Stud farm of Gelos
  • the Cathedral Sainte-Marie d' Oloron
  • the Saint-Galactoire Cathedral of Lescar
  • the church Holy-Cross of Oloron-Holy-Marie
  • the Holy-Foy church of Morlaàs
  • the National park of the Pyrenees
  • the Natural reserve of nesting of the fawn-coloured vultures of Aste-Béon
  • the square house and the museum of the beret of Nay (Yrénées-Atlantiques)
See also: List of the museums of the Yrénées-Atlantiques

Famous inhabitants of Béarn

Characters

  • Henri IV, (1553-1610) king de France of 1589 to 1610 and Navarre of 1572 to 1610.
  • Jeanne d' Albret, queen of Navarre (1528 - 1572)
  • Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte (1763-1844), marshal of Napoleon, then king of Sweden under the name of Charles XIV.
  • Gaston Fébus
  • Louis Barthou, politician and academician
  • Marquis de Fenoyl, Premier¨Président of 1711 to 1724 of the Parliament of Navarre, céans in Pau
  • Gaston Planted, Physicist, inventor of the electric fencer, born with Orthez in 1834
  • Jean-Jacques Caux (1830-1922), Pioneer of the time of the Gold rush in the province of the Colombia-British, Canada

Political personalities

  • Francois Bayrou

  • Andre Labarrère
  • Alain Lamassoure
Born in Pau on February 10th, 1944, Minister for the European businesses under Edouard Balladur and for the budget under Alain Juppe
  • Jean Lassalle
  • Jean-Jacques Lasserre
  • Jean Saint-Jose

Singers

  • Marcel Upstream
  • Daniel Balavoine
  • Bertrand Cantat
  • Nathalie Cardone

Dressmakers

  • Andre Courrèges

  • Jacques Fourcade

Poets, writers

  • Francis James, (December 2nd 1868 - November 1st 1938), French poet
  • Xavier Navarrot, poet republican chansonnier, January 1799 - December 1862.
  • Simin Palay, poet in language Inhabitant of Béarn E, (1874-1965).
  • Alexis Leger known as Alexis Saint-Leger Leger then Saint-John Persian , poet and diplomat French 1887 - 1975, which made its studies with the college Louis Barthou of Pau of 1899 to 1904.
  • Jules Supervielle, poet, novelist and playwright (1884-1960), who rests in Oloron. * Paul-Jean Toulet, poet (1867-1920), born in Pau.
  • Jacques Dyssord, Poet and writer (1880-1952), born with Oloron-Holy-Marie.
  • Pierre Bourdieu, sociologist (1930-2002), born in Denguin and raises with the college Louis Barthou in Pau.
  • Eric Gonzalès, Gascon novelist writing in in its characteristic Inhabitant of Béarn E, born in 1964 with Pau

Sportsmen

  • Basketball: Freddy Hufnagel - Alain Larrouquis
  • Canoe-kayak: Tony Estanguet - Patrice Estanguet
  • Cycling: Gilbert Duclos-Lassalle
  • Football: Edouard Cissé - Julien Escudé - Jean-François Larios - Jean-Michel Larqué - Julien Tauziède
  • Rugby: Philippe Bernat-Rooms - Abrupt Nicolas - Laurent Huts - Nano Capdouze - François Moncla - Robert Paparemborde - Jean Piqué - Damien Traille - Pierre Triep-Capdeville - Jean-Pierre Garuet - David Laperne
  • Alpine skiing: Annie Famose
  • Tennis: Nicolas Escudé
  • Veil: Titouan Lamazou

Internal bonds

  • List of the Viscounts of Béarn

  • king de Navarre
  • Henri IV
  • Aircraft carrier '' Béarn ''
  • B3earnaise sauce

External bonds

  • Official site of the national museum of the Castle of Pau.
  • Presentation of Béarn
  • the valley of Ossau
  • the valley of Winder
  • Béarn of Gaves
  • Site of Tourism in valley of Ossau
  • the valley of Barétous
  • History of Béarn

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