AU REVOIR

"I've been obedient!!" Au revoir Zulu and Kenco.


The tally - 101 corks only one screw(top)


No flower can lift spirits quite like sunflowers can. Bright and cheery, bold yet comfortable, the sunflower is often associated with adoration and longevity.


And so we left our chateaux and enjoyed our final weekend with friends. We'd wanted to see Le Tour for years and were able to view it from outside Tarbes last Sunday. The circus before the cyclists appear, note the Pyrenees in the background.


The peloton. Blink
AU REVOIR

Winding up and winding down

We are winding things up as we prepare to leave in just over a week. We are winding down as the heat intensifies.
Too hot to take photos of old things(DH, Duras Chateaux, Agen theatre)




Too hot to read menus


Too hot for Toulouse sausage,

Even too hot to swim in the ancient piscine!!
The heat will have ripened the tomatoes in these hanging baskets.


At least the weekly night market with the butcher bbqing his meat is held when the sun is less severe.



Guess I'll just have to watch Wimbledon or as Sue Stewart says "get Lleytoned"

A pint of guiness

A brief sojourn to Ireland for Bloomsday and a pint.

We took Rick Stein's advice and had lunch at Agen Railway Station en route.

On Saturday we took a Joycean walk around the heart of the hibernian metropolis. We had as a guide a young lady from Alaska, most un-Palinesque tho.

On Sunday we took a trip to Johnny Foxes, which must be the archetype of all Irish theme pubs. Note the number plate on the limo!



We finally got to the point of the exercise - assorted Dubliners and others reading the dirty bits (and some of the clean bits) out of that scandalous book Ulysses. But this guy was singing.

Local views

More eating and drinking with friends

A galette and manseng wine for lunch with our dear cousins Honor and David.


Darby cooked a delicious cassoulet. It didn't matter that the duck legs turned out to be large, because they were turkey legs!


A working bee outside was followed by a shared lunch.



A visit to Lectoure an attractive town in a more touristy region included a visit to a local industry extracting blue dye from the plant Isatis tinctoria.

In France during the Renaissance, the southwest region became the very famous "Pays de Cocagne" , a region of "milk and honey". The local woad merchants became extremely rich and built magnificient mansions, castles and churches.

But the arrival of foreign Indigos very quickly brought down the fortunes made on woad and entirely replaced it until the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte, who used woad to dye the fabric for his uniforms.

Our local winery

Our local winery just about 1.5 km away makes red from Merlot, rose from Tannat and Cabernet and also a moelleux (semisweet wine) from gros and Petit Manseng.

See this item about semi sweet wines in SW France

The estate of the chateau used to have vines but they were not replaced after the phylloxera came. A few small operators including the Domaine de Quissat make artisanal wines using organic methods - Biologique as the French call it.

Some more Pictures

Summer is coming on at Pecile

The share farmers have been busy baling the lucerne

 

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The thistlefarm is being prepared for sunflowers.

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The honeysuckle in the front courtyard

Walking the donkey

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There is still time to relax for coffee and beer after shopping in Praysass

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A light lunch in Agen - assiette complete

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