Musée du Béret et Pyrénées Lac de Gaube

Beret Museum and Pyrenees National Park and it's Lake Gaube.
Saturday was our last USAC excursion and these are the two places we went. The first stop was the Beret museum where we learned how Berets are made and the meaning of them to different regions and people. The museum is located in one of the orginal beret factories so we go to see some of the old machinery. Interesting fact I learned, was that berets are pretty water proof due to one of the processes they go through. Originally after they are sewn they then put them in slightly soapy water and stomp on them to get the wool to meld together, essentially created a water proof hat! Now they of course have machines that do all the stomping. I wonder if the french enjoy stomping, since the same technique is utilized when making wine...
The next part of our trip was to the Pyrenees National park, or part of, since it is huge. We ate a lovely restaurant over looking gigantic falls. The food was superb even though it was freezing and the sun was out. I was wearing an undershirt, a long sleeve, thing jacket, with larger wind proof jacket on top. I was still cold! But I'm strange like that I suppose.
The hike was intense but so gorgeous. Most of the hike was composed of really large rocks, almost like a staircase for a giant. After about an hour hike you come to a clearing and see this gorgeous blue lack, a valley in the distance with a cascading fall, along with a restaurant (thankfully where I bought some coffee).

 One of the original machines for beret making. Unfortunately my photos will not be very good since I realized I forgot my SD card for my camera. So these photos are from my phone.

 On our way to the national park. Taken from the bus.

 Another one from the trip up the winding road.

 Our view during lunch in the national park.

 We set outside at this restaurant.

 Beginning of our hike. The clouds were sitting on top of the mountains as you can see.

 Lac du Gaube! The water was crystal clear with shades of green and blue. If you look off to the left of the photo you can see the water fall. Its like a sliver of white in the picture.

 This was just a park we passed on the way back to Pau.

It was a lovely way to end my time here in Pau. I now have 2 more days of class then head off to Norway. Looking forward to my trek home.