Gastronomic Gascony

For the next 2 days - 5 and 6 November - I traversed the département of the Gers, part of the old province of Gascony. Gascony is one of the least populated areas of France, famous for the gastronomic delights of wild mushrooms, Armagnac brandy and controversial foie gras. It's also home to the Gascon language (little spoken nowadays), which is really a dialect of Occitan, the old language of south-west France.

I meandered through a gentle landscape of vine slopes and maize fields, and after 35 km reached Condom where I passed the night - once more in a very spacious gîte municipal and again alone. The next morning I had a sudden desire to leave early and walk in the dark to witness the dawn. At 6.30 I hit the trail. With only the occasional use of my headtorch I was soon out of town and stumbling along country lanes. The dawn was magnificent: purple, blue, orange and pale yellow streaks to a soundtrack of calling crows.

It was another long day. 33 km. My boots were pinching, causing severe foot pain. I'd had this before, but each morning the pain had miraculously eased. The final 7 km along a dead straight disused railway track to Eauze seemed very long indeed...

My photo is a view from the 12th - 13th century Chapelle Sainte-Germaine de Soldanum 10 km before Condom.

In A Little Hilltop Village

In 1930 the Tarn burst its banks and flooded Moissac, destroying 617 houses and drowning 120 people. I left Moissac on 3 November and my morning's walk continued this watery theme. I followed the Canal de Garonne for 12 km. This canal runs from Bordeaux to Toulouse where it joins the Canal du Midi, thereby connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea. (The complete stretch is known as the Canal des Deux Mers.) At one point I knew I passed the confluence of the Tarn and Garonne rivers. But it was quite misty and I couldn't make out anything very much except for the occasional lone cyclist or jogger who ghosted by. From the canalside village of Pommevic (there's a nuclear power station here but I didn't see it) I headed on a quiet country road across flat farmland towards the hilltop village of Auvillar.

Auvillar was the 1st of many bastide towns and villages I would either see distantly or visit throughout the rest of the département of Tarn-et-Garonne and in the next département of the Gers. Bastides were fortified settlements built in south-west France, in medieval Languedoc, Gascony and Aquitaine, during the 13th and 14th centuries. They were normally built to a grid pattern, and situated on hilltops for defensive reasons. The photo shows the beautifully restored medieval market hall in Auvillar's central square.

At Auvillar I encountered an artist painting, in the style of Van Gogh, a large and colourful mural for the local school. As was my custom I approached him for a chat. We talked about the big influx of English people to the area. "10% of the population of Auvillar is now English," he commented. I asked if that caused any problems (we often hear the French blaming incomers for the property price hikes affecting the whole of France). "Well, house prices have gone up, it's true," he said. "But there are many reasons for that. We have nothing against the English living here. As long as they mix in and join village society. However there are some English cliques which keep themselves to themselves and won't even attempt to learn French or take part in communal village life..."