Navarrenx
The Vía Podiensis
Navarrenx sits on the Gave d'Oloron and holds a remarkable distinction: it's the first bastioned city in France, predating Vauban's fortified towns by about 100 years. After Castilians seized and destroyed the earlier settlement in 1523, Henri II d'Albret commissioned new fortifications designed by Italian engineer Fabricio Siciliano, based on the citadel of Lucca in Tuscany. Built between 1538 and 1549, the ramparts run 1.7 km, stand 10 meters high, and feature two orillon bastions, two demi-bastions, a ravelin, dry moats, and the Bastion des Contremines -- a 140-meter underground passageway built to detect enemy mining operations. In 1685, Vauban himself inspected the walls and found them excellent.
The town has been a member of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France since 2014. The original bastide grid layout is preserved, along with the Wednesday market (running since the 1500s), a 16th-century poudriere (powder magazine), and the Military Fountain producing about 1,700 liters per hour from an unknown source.
Navarrenx is also the capital of salmon fishing. The Gave d'Oloron is the longest salmon river in France, and the town has hosted the World Salmon Fishing Championships for over 40 years. The championship runs in two rounds, May and July, with fish weighing up to 10 kg.
Full services: shops, restaurants, accommodation, market. A proper stage town.
The name means "the edge of Navarre" in Latin (Sponda-Navarrensis in the 11th-century cartulary). A bridge charter from 1188 under Gaston VI established the crossing point, and the town became a bastide in 1316.
The 1569 siege is Navarrenx's proudest moment. The Protestant garrison under the Baron of Arros successfully resisted a three-month Catholic siege -- the only siege in the city's history. Jeanne d'Albret had converted the Saint-Germain church into a Protestant temple in 1555. The connection to the Musketeers runs deep: Aramis and Athos grew up within 50 km, and Porthos (Isaac de Portau) came from nearby Audaux and trained with the city guards at Navarrenx. Paul de Batz, elder brother of the historical d'Artagnan, served as citadel governor.
From Aire-sur-l'Adour the GR65 crosses the rolling Tursan and Chalosse hills of the southern Landes, then enters the Pyrenees-Atlantiques as it approaches Bearn. The terrain is a steady sequence of green hills with cornfields giving way to mixed farming and the first intimations of the Pyrenean foothills.
This stretch carries a recurring theme: nearly every significant religious building -- Pimbo, Caubin, Larreule, Sauvelade -- was damaged or destroyed in August 1569 when Montgomery's Protestant forces swept through on Jeanne d'Albret's orders. The rebuilt and surviving fragments tell the story of a region torn apart by religious war.
Key stops are Arzacq-Arraziguet (bastide with all services, Saturday market), Arthez-de-Bearn (traditional entry to historic Bearn, Caubin chapel nearby), and Navarrenx (France's first bastioned city, Plus Beaux Villages). Services thin out considerably between the larger towns.
Accommodation in Navarrenx.
| Gîte d´étape communal de Navarrenx 13€ 54 |
| Gîte et chambre d'hôtes Le Cri de la Girafe 25*€ 8 |
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| Gîte d´étape L'Alchimiste 20*€ 12 |
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