At the foothills of the Pyrénées Atlantiques, near Pau and Jurançon, where Aspe and Ossau Valleys…read morealmost meet, and just outside of Pau you will find the Castel du Pont d'Oly. This hotel restaurant is well known by the gourmands of the region for cooking that is a mixture of local fresh produce cooked with care and beautifully presented. Dishes like foie gras, poule au pot, duck preserve, pibales ( baby eels) in season and in season wild mushrooms picked locally At the foot of the Jurançon vineyards, with just a few rooms around a swimming pool, the hotel has been organised for comfort and somewhat individual in decorative style but both relaxing and inviting. Great wine list and super service with staff who really know the cuisine and will discuss it with you. I stayed here for 4 days and contrary to normal habits ate in the restaurant every night and was never disappointed.

It's always a great pleasure to have dinner at the Restaurant Le Pastoral (Hotel Alysson): large…read moredining room, relaxing music, friendly, sensitive and thoughtful service and extremely interesting price ("menu tradition" with starter, main course and dessert at 29€). But above all I am always impressed by the creative and perfect combination of ingredients in all dishes, like today the potatoes and duck mille feuille with vegetables and mushroom sauce, or the other proposal from my previous picture.

I always try to be balanced in reviews, and the good part about staying in Oloron St Michel is that…read moreit is really the perfect place to go hiking through the lakes south of there. We had an astonishingly beautiful day and I would not have traded that for the world. Staying in Oloron seemed a good option, and after staying in the amazing Chateau Lalande near Perigueux, we found the listing for Alysson in their same guides to Chateaux and Hotel. Sure, it looked modern, but it was cheap, and located in a place that we liked. I didn't mind the bird in the lobby. I like birds. I thought that the very pretty women at reception were also very competent and friendly. We appreciated the free parking too. But this hotel really needs an upgrade. It's more like a motel. We stayed in the unrenovated wing, and it was quite ugly. The wireless in our room did NOT work. It worked in the hall and lobby and perhaps we shouldn't complain as we had troubles with wireless throughout the whole of southwest France! The gym was OK. Thank god to be able to run on a treadmill after so much rich French food. But it's pretty run down. There was no refrigerator in our room for the lovely cheese we'd bought en route. Dinner was neither terrible nor outstanding, though the environment felt really like a motel or cheap hotel rather than upscale dining (and the prices were upscale). We had some really good wines, and the entrees and mains were better than the dessert. If we had the choice, I'd probably have looked for somewhere else with a bit more charm.