Well, Pau is certainly a lovely town and we had a great time, but hotel le Bourbon, that's another story! We arrived to find the square where it's located was a construction site with hoarding all around and absolutely no where to park. ( I believe they are making underground car-parking!), we risked parking on the pavement and checked in. When we saw our room we were horrified, it probably hadn't been decorated for 20yrs! and a with a bathroom to match (the carpet in the bathroom was so bad, i had to put my shoes on to go in there). The view from our window (of the construction site) was not the best either, but being tired we decided to go out for a drink and have dinner, perhaps things would then look better??, they didn't, but at least we had decent clean bed linen and bathroom towels, which we later found were changed daily. As i was with my husband and we were only staying 3nts and would be out all day we made the best of it. if i had been on my own, i would not have been happy to stay. Basic is ok, but grubby and neglected is not.

On the plus side, we found the manager to be pleasant, helpful and very hard working, and breakfast in the hotel was very good - fresh croissants, juice and good coffee.

I would not recommend staying because of the very poor condition of the guestrooms and bathrooms, but if the hotel was to be renovated it could be very attractive and the central location is excellent, it's a pity that it won't look out onto a leafy square anymore, but at least there will be carparking close by!