13 September Cool morning with nice overcast then sunny and warm in the afternoon

Not very clean socks. Still coughing stuff, but incremental improvement. White shirt in need of Oxyclean.

QB headed East before heading west and met me in Larrissingle, a 13th century perfect
bastide (defensive) town, wall intact and with a full moat and covered drawbridge. Early morning, the town was defended primarily by fog and pigeons.

The church, as mentioned in the KB post is pre-Gothic with Roman arches and small windows (from the days that it was thought that the wall could not support itself if windows were large). When you enter this church a light goes on and Gregorian chants are piped in. A bit spooky and maybe a little cheesy. Window glass was new and one pane seemed to contained a small gaggle of stained glass geese.

KB stopped on the way out to visit shop that sells only the local Armagnac. As this town is in the center of Armagnac wines a purchase was necessary as well as some degustation. First the KB sniffed some ten year old stuff, very perfumed, and then tested a 30 year old “digestif”. Very smooth.

The vendor spoke good English, so KB got a good lesson about Floc and Armagnac. Floc is like a sweet wine except that it is a mixture of grape juice and alcohol. The white stuff and the red stuff are different grapes. The name of the grape used in the white Floc did not register. For the red Floc it contains Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and a third grape.

Bought a small tasting bottle of the 10 year old Armagnac as well as tasting bottles of the white and red Floc. We had our white aperitif before starting this blog. 17% alcohol and tasting a good deal like a sweet Sauterne. If one likes sweet white smooth wines this is excellent. Said to be only an aperitif I think it would be a fine after dinner drink. Further reports on the red and the Armagnac after consumption.

The Chemin was not too arduous today, mainly on decent roads and wide paths through fields. QB trailed or passed a number of other walkers. Stopped for a small cheese and apple snack before completing the schlep to Montreal.

Sat around in Montreal with a Canadian couple, a French woman and a perfect French man. On French TV there is always a man with gray hair or white hair, looking perfect, and holding forth with immense authority on various topics – their equivalent of a talking head – and implying that each word is carries great weight; comes with many facial gestures. Our French pelerin would have been perfect in this role.

We discussed the strike (he thought that the society should not change and that retirement should be early and paid for by getting the rich to pay more and especially not sheltering their income in Swiss and the retired not to leave the country with the funds and spend them elsewhere) and working (he, like the KB, always wanted to retire and saw little value in work). Coffee, beers, tea and French lessons. The bi-lingual Canadians helped with the difficult parts. Not a bad afternoon. Also learned a recipe from a Frenchwoman which may remind some of the late, great Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s Frog a la Peche (or possibly Peche a la frog): peel and halve peach, remove pit and replace with prune (pruneaux d”Agen bit in this region). Close up peach, add honey and almond paste and steam in oven (I think) in water bath ’til tender. Serve. Eat.

The off to the perfect Residence d’hôte. Four years old, a time share built by the municipality, we have a two bedroom suite with excellent facilities, fine swimming pool and a jacuzzi kept at 30C! Once again too cold. The proprietor said that in winter he would raise it to 37 or maybe 38. Dinner at a local restaurant included a nice dorade, pleasant change from the usual confit de canard.

Tomorrow, Eauze.