Béarn

The Béarn is one of the traditional provinces of France, located in the Pyrenees mountains and in the plain at their feet, in southwest France. Along with the three Basque provinces of Soule, Lower Navarre, and Labourd, the principality of Bidache, as well as small parts of Gascony, it forms in the southwest the current département of Pyrénées-Atlantiques. The capitals of Béarn were Beneharnum, Morlaàs, Orthez, and then Pau.
Béarn is bordered by Basque provinces Soule and Lower Navarre to the west, by Gascony to the north, by Bigorre to the east, and by Spain to the south.
Today, the mainstays of the Béarn area are the petroleum industry, the aerospace industry through the helicopter turboshaft engine manufacturer Turbomeca, tourism and agriculture. Pau was the birthplace of Elf Aquitaine, which has now become a part of the Total S.A. petroleum company.
In Alexandre Dumas's The Three Musketeers series, the protagonist d'Artagnan came from Béarn. That d'Artagnan is usually referred to as a Gascon is neither surprising nor incorrect, as Béarn forms part of Gascony.
In the eastern part of the province are two small exclaves belonging to Bigorre.
Show lessRead more
Wikipedia

Discover this place

9 items
Home
Discover
Play
Nearby
Favorites