Oviedo, Pau, and Home

 

Cathedral of San Salvador in Oviedo

This is the last of several blogs about our summer travels.

You can find the first one here, and the second here. The third one is here.  The fourth one is to be found here.

The heat of the summer is over, and good riddance! September is nicer; still warm, but without  the intensity of August. Plus much cooler nights! And we have, finally, come to the end of our Spanish travels.

Much as we enjoyed the mountains, once our week in Las Arenas was up it was time to move on to Oviedo. This city is the capital of the Principality of Asturias, the northernmost province of Spain.

We really liked Oviedo. It felt like a small town in spite of its population of 200,000. And. as we wandered its historic streets, we were constantly surprised by how few people we saw. This was mid-August, peak tourist season! We were hearing tales of crowds and packs of people everywhere. Here, not hardly so much!

Monasterio de San Pelayo, just up the street from where we stayed.
We passed it every day going into the city.

A large, open plaza, mostly empty. Where are all the people we expected?!

Oviedo is a city of layers. There’s the medieval city, started in 761 CE. The tourist core of the city consists of the area around the cathedral (of course!), the plazas and museums there. Further to the west is the more modern city, with large and elegant buildings dating the the last century, and the magnificent park, Campo San Francisco. And beyond that are the residential areas, with more modern, and less interesting, buildings. 

I like this wall! Medieval? You bet!
The "three-light window" of Iglesia de San Tirso,
all that's left of the original church built in the 790s.

A glimpse of the cathedral caught from a side street.

A shopping street in Oviedo.

And speaking of shopping... this poster was for sale in one of those shops.
(OK, another GoT reference. But Pelayo of Asturias really WAS king in the north!)

Another view of the cathedral bell tower.

Scattered throughout the city is a wonderful collection of statues, mostly added in the last few decades. Public art is well represented in Oviedo! 

Vendedoras del Fontán, one of many modern statues in the city.
In the market square, of course! (Plazuela de Daoiz et Velarde)

Paula y la Bella Lola in El Fontán Square

La Maternidad de Botero, a more modern sculpture in the, er, more modern part of the city.

Oviedo was a location for the 2008 Woody Allen film Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a minor claim to fame (and yes, Barcelona was also a filming location). We watched the movie and found it unremarkable, but the city did put a statue of Woody Allen in a prominent spot. 

Paul and Woody, hangin' in Oviedo.

Campo San Francisco is a large, wonderful park in the modern part of the city.
Park visitors are welcomed by this photographer.
(And how many seats have polished that chair, and horse, waiting to have their picture taken?)

No, not a castle, just a building (offices??) across from Campo San Francisco.

An older—and more significant—claim to fame is that this is the origin of the Camino de Compostela. It started in the 9th Century when King Alfonso II walked from Oviedo to Compostela to honor Saint James. As the reputation of the Camino spread, pilgrims came from further away. Oviedo is still the last major stop before Santiago de Compostela, about a two-week walk. 

"Oviedo, origin of the Camino" says this large sign across from the cathedral.

We certainly enjoyed Oviedo, but it was clear our enthusiasm for playing tourist was waning. After our three days in the city we were happy to point the car east and head for the French border.

La Gitana, the Gypsy, watching over...

...the evening dining scene. This was the one time Oviedo seemed crowded: at dinner!

            Pau 

We had often seen this French city on the map, at the edge of the Pyrenees, and always wondered what it was like. We skipped it on the drive to Spain; now we had a chance to visit: the drive home was long, we needed to stop for the night somewhere, and Pau was conveniently located half-way home. 

View from the escarpment, looking out at the train station and the mountains beyond.
The yellow stakes are a monument to the Tour de France bicycle race.

We were charmed! It’s a small city, with a fine view of the Pyrenees. It has its history: King Henri IV was born here in 1553 (‘course, he wasn’t king then; he had to marry the sister of King Henri III first, then wait for him to die… but that’s a long story we’re still piecing together!). Before ascending to the throne of France, Henri was the King of Navarre, most of which is now in Spain.

National Museum and the Château de Pau.
(And birthplace of the future Henri IV.)

Église Saint Martin

His palace/birthplace was the historic center of the town; we hoped to visit it but it was not open for visitors until the afternoon, and we needed to get on the road.

Église Saint Martin from a different angle.

We did see our third (and last!) funicular on this trip in Pau. The city is built on an escarpment that overlooks the river and the train station. Sometime at the beginning of the last century (and that would be the 1900s) it was felt access to the town would be greatly enhanced if people didn’t have to climb the few hundred vertical feet up from the train station.

Pau's cute little funicular car.

So, a funicular! It works the same way as all the others: one car goes up while the other goes down. They are connected to the ends of the same cable, so one car basically pulls the other up. Clever! 

The whole funicular, from the escarpment downtown to the lower terminal,
with the train station in the distance.

            The road home

The next day we were up and out on the road. As we moved along the excellent toll road (the autoroute) we found massive traffic jams. We’d traveled this way before and the road had always been clear and open. What was going on! 

August, that’s what was going on. August is vacation month. While the French have begun to move away from the rigid social requirements of the past, August is still the month when the kids are out of school, and when everyone is is looking forward to their four-week vacation (with another two weeks around Christmas). 

So August is the month most people are on the road, coming (early in the month) or returning (at the end, of course!). These days there is more and more overlap into July and June, but August is still the big month. 

And even though we were traveling in the middle of the month, the highway was jammed. We thought we’d have lunch at one of the excellent rest stops… same thing! Jammed, full of people, every picnic table occupied as was most of the grassy area. We quickly got back on the road. 

But the traffic eventually cleared, and we made good time. By late afternoon we were pulling up to our building in Montpellier, glad to be home!

Home again! We’ve had some hot, humid days, but by now (early September) the fall weather is clearly on its way. 

And, after being home for a month, so are we (on our way): In a few days we will be leaving for the Italian island of Sardinia. South of Corsica, north of Sicily. We’ll be taking the car with us, so our trip will start with an 11-hour ferry ride.

You can read all about it here in a few weeks!

Campo San Francisco park in Oviedo.
And yes, that's actual grass; the turf must be changed out every day!
(Note that date is 4-August-2023)