For people who normally live in cities, spending a few weeks in Gascony is quite an adventure and enormous fun. Of course we adore France and this is a particularly lovely corner. Autumn is beautiful with greens, golds, yellows and browns so every little walk or drive involves endless intakes of breath at the sheer beauty of it all whether the sun is shining or not. John has learnt to take control of the wood fires in the stoves and usually manages to get a nice warm glow – though sometimes it takes a few goes and a little help from his human bellows of a wife blowing on the flames!
We stocked up on some very pleasant pink and red wine in 3 litre boxes so we can enjoy a glass with meals and have had a couple of forays to Leader Price to keep the larder full of cheese, rillettes, salad and deserts. The meat is wonderful though terrifically expensive but then the pound/Euro exchange rate is not in our favour at present. It’s fun to cook meals with local ingredients and a the morning trip to the Boulanger in the village for baguettes and pain au raison is a key part of our routine – remembering that she doesn’t open on a Wednesday.
I’ve managed to run every morning in a bid to keep my current wardrobe and not have to buy too many larger sizes and it has been a joy to view the countryside on foot despite creaking knees and laboured breath. There was one day when the rain blew horizontally and it felt painful but it’s been mainly bright, woolly hat weather and the rolling hill country provides enough challenge in my current state of (not very) fitness. I keep getting lost which isn’t great during the hunting season and the fertile loam of the ploughed fields turns trainers into wellingtons very quickly but I’m slowly getting the hang of the geography. It doesn’t help that Moncrabeau church tower has a twin in another village on an identical hill which can be tricky when you’ve been using it as a landmark for a good mile or so!
We cleared all the leaves from inside the pool cover and the terrace and swept the terracotta tiles down so hopefully that will keep the pool cleaner for next summer and we feel great pride when we look at the leaf free, gleaming pool side – though we’ll have to do it all again next time there’s a windy day! It was so sunny yesterday that I actually sat outside by the pool for a good hour – in November, it was heavenly.
We’ve been into Nerac, such a pretty town just 12 km up the road with a very green river running through it (due to the limestone in the soil according to Keith), enjoyed a pleasant lunch and wandered around the market. The mushrooms, vegetables and apples are incredible and we also managed to stumble across a copy of the Radio Times for this week so we can’t be the only people with some access to English telly!
I’ve been able to indulge my washing and ironing hobby as there was quite a lot of laundry to get on top of but I’m winning that battle and can go back to dragging the clothes off John’s back in order to fill the machine very soon!
All in all it’s quite idyllic and having missed autumn last year this double dose is just wonderful.
No comments:
Post a Comment