There are still vestiges of the ancient ramparts of the city to be seen, and the great market held every fifteen days, on the Place de la Fourquie, is famous throughout Béarn. Altogether Morlaas should not be omitted from any neighbouring itinerary, and the local colour to be found on a market day at Morlaas' snug little Hôtel des Voyageurs will be a marvel to those who know only the life of the cities. Morlaas is one of the good things one occasionally stumbles upon off the beaten track; and it is not far off either; just a dozen kilometres or so northwest of Pau. Morlaas' importance of old is further enhanced when one learns that the measure of Morlaas was the basis for the measure used in the wine trade of all Gascony, and the same is true of the _livre morlan_, and the _sou morlan_, which were the monetary units of Gascony and a part of Languedoc. CHAPTER XIX THE GAVE D'OSSAU On ascending the Gave d'Ossau, all the way to Laruns and beyond, one is impressed by the beauty of the snow-crested peaks before them, unless by chance an exceptionally warm spell of weather has melted the snow, which is quite unlikely. You can name every one of the peaks of the Pyrenees with the maps and plans of Joanne's Guide, but you will glean little specific information from the peasants en route, especially the women. "_Attendez, monsieur, je vais demander à mon mari_," said a buxom, lively-looking peasant woman when questioned at Laruns. Her "mari" came to the rescue as well as he was able. "_Ma foi, je ne sais pas trop_," he replied, "_mais peut être_....;" there was no use going any further; all he knew was that the mountains were the Pyrenees, and were the peaks high or low, to him they were always "les Pyrénées" or "_la montagne_." Not far from Pau, on mounting the Gave d'Ossau, is Gan, one of the thirteen ancient cities of Béarn. In a modest castle flanked by a tiny pepper-box tower Pierre de Marca, the historian of Béarn, first saw the light, some years after the birth of Henri IV. A little further on, but hemmed in among the high mountains between the valley of the Ossau and the Pau, is a tiny bourg bearing the incongruous name of Bruges. It is not a simple coincidence in name, with the well-known Belgium port, because the records show that this old feudal _bastide_ was originally peopled by exiled Flemings, who gave to it the name of one of their most glorious cities. The details of this foreign implantation are not very precise. The little bourg enjoyed some special privileges, in the way of being immune from certain taxes, up to the Revolution. There are no architectural monuments of splendour to remark at Bruges, and its sole industries are the manufacture of _espadrilles_, or rope-soled shoes, and _chapelets_, the construction of these latter "objects of piety" being wholly in the hands of the women-folk. [Illustration: _Espadrille-makers_]