Holidays in Béarn: Lescar where “living well together” is sheltered by old stones
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Nearby, the ramparts, the oldest parts of which date back to the 4th century , erected on three levels facing the Pyrenees, house a pretty Mediterranean garden punctuated by old staircases and a series of concerts in summer. In July, the Sunday Music Festival offers jazz, Spanish, and Andalusian notes on its belvedere, adorned for the occasion with parasols and deckchairs. And a food truck to reinvigorate spectators. Other concerts are scheduled in more intimate locations, at the Lac des Carolins, accessible to people with reduced mobility, on the Liana plain, and in the Lescourre valley, a small haven of peace through which flows a stream.
The mosaics of the cathedral
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Narrow streets adorned with Béarnese facades dot the town of this city, which boasts a two-thousand-year-old heritage, and is an essential stop on the Via Tolosana on the Way of St. James. They always end up at the foot of the Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption Cathedral, which, although closed for renovations all summer, remains open to visitors. Not to enter would be sacrilege! For it is in this necropolis that the sovereigns of the Kingdom of Navarre, including the grandparents of King Henry IV, rest.
This building, the oldest in Béarn, listed as a Historic Monument, also houses a treasure room, a listed monumental organ, and a 12th - century Romanesque mosaic, discovered two centuries ago during renovation work. It depicts a small Moorish hunter with his donkey and bow, who, according to legend, lost a foot after being captured in Zaragoza during the Reconquista. This mosaic of the Moor with a wooden leg is believed to be the oldest known representation of a prosthesis in the West.
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