having never fully mastered the air conditioning. Breakfast at 7.40. All a bit clattery and grabby. Geoff has donated to Des, possibly on a temporary basis, his rather impressive 'plumber's belt' which enables the wearer to festoon himself with assorted necessities with ease of access while walking - e.g.mosquito repellent (hammer?), emergency flares, wine bottle etc. It also means that Des is selflessly prepared to carry more than his fair share of the picnic.We were away by 8.15 initially along the Baise river bank and past the Church of St Jacques complete with statue of St Joseph. There was quite a number of other pilgrims walking today's stretch. It was foggy-ish until midday but excellent sunshine as we approached Montreal du Gers. The going was flat and dry underfoot.
We did a detour via the fortified village of Larresingle, the former home of the bishops of Condom built in the monolithic monumentalist style of the Popes at Avignon. It has been somewhat 'Disneyfied' by a committee of American 'friends' who felt it needed restoration. We paused for a coffee nearby after Clare had persuaded the cafe that they were open. Next door was a recreation of medieval siege weapons to complete the day for a family outing. Later a further off-piste diversion took us to the simple Eglise de Routges. Here the 'untouchable' Cagots who lived locally as pariahs had their own small side-door as a separate entrance to the church. Nor were they permitted to share the cemetery. Needs a bit of unpicking that!
Lunch was a picnic on the headland of a field of vines beneath an oak tree - goats cheese, pate, tomatoes and cucumber + a half-glass of red. Perfect!
An hour later we arrived in Montreal du Gers. Unfortunately our gite, run by Mon & Mme Florisonne was another 3k the other side but after a call from the Tourist Office they were very happy to collect us. Meanwhile we spent 10 minutes visiting the adjoining museum of Roman remains excavated locally.
Madame Florisonne (the name of their place is 'Domaine du fils
de Fleur'. Geddit?) collected us in a capacious van and chatted amiably as she told us of the 25 foreign couples from all over Europe and beyond who had bought houses locally in the past few years. She and her husband (Belgian, previously worked for Nestle) had settled here 10 years ago and built their wine-producing smallholding from scratch. I never did find out why they also kept a large monkey in an equally large cage. We duly installed ourselves in our allotted rooms. Ours was the terra cotta chambre.It continued to be a baking afternoon. Little lizards scuttered round the outside walls. Liz did a big washing job on socks and shirts to take advantage of the drying conditions but even by six o'clock it was still too hot to sit in the direct sunshine.
Supper was overwhelming. Our hosts were most enthusiastic and proudly plied us with food and the various wines they had made although despite prompting they would not sit down with us. There was a huge mixed salad based on gesiers and much else, followed by pork hock x 4 in a carroty juice and creme caramel to finish. Meanwhile Eric held forth at length on his wine, his neighbours, French politics, Europeanization and much else besides. Our language skills struggled to keep up but he seemed content to drive on and was extremely entertaining and most amiable. Nice meal. Nice company. And afterwards a stroll in the dewy meadow.
