Orthez is a beautiful small town in south-western France. It has a population of about 10,000 people and is the central city for western Béarn and, to a smaller extent, for Soule, the eastern most French province of the Basque Country. In the Middle Ages it was the capital of Gaston Fébus' realm which reached from the Atlantic almost to the Mediterrean; not bad for the
13th century!
LOCATION
Before being assigned to Orthez by the Academie de Bordeaux, I didn't have a clue where it was. In truth, I didn't even know where Pau or Mont-de-Marsan were and they are departmental capital cities. Orthez is 40km west of
Pau, 50km south of
Mont-de-Marsan, 40km SE of Dax, 70km east of
Bayonne.
A little further afield to regional capitals, it is 200km south of
Bordeaux and 250km southwest of
Toulouse.
With respect to country capitals, it's about 350-400km north of Madrid and 800km south of Paris.