We drove north through Condom in the rain and arrived at Dave and Jane’s stunningly beautiful home near Gazaupouy late in the morning. The house and the garden are so lovely, I was scared that if we stayed the night we would never want to leave. They served us lovely cheeses and pates out on the terrace, followed by apricots and flat peaches and we chatted away for ages. Late in the afternoon they kindly drove us around some of the local villages; La Romieu, Marsolan and Lectoure. We stopped on the way back at a wonderfully rustic, very local bar in Gazaupouy for a couple of drinks. Jane introduced me to Floc which is a white wine and Armagnac spirit. I’m not normally a brandy drinker, but I really enjoyed the warm, slightly peachy flavour as it slid down my throat. However, knowing my inability to hold my drink and the fact that Floc is 16% proof, I declined a second glass!!!
Back at the house, Jane and Dave cooked up a wonderful evening meal of sardines, layered on goats cheese, on top of sliced ripe tomatoes. For the second course we had barbecued duck with broad beans in a delicious parsley sauce. It’s not just a beautiful house, the chefs are pretty darn good too, they could be running a restaurant here! The sun had set by now, so we moved inside to sit at their huge kitchen table to eat cheese and bread and make a large dent in a huge bowl of cherries. We finally went off to bed somewhere between midnight and 1a.m. We think our bedroom was possibly the most beautiful we have ever slept in. I really didn’t want to leave.
The next morning Dave and Jane drove us in to Condom where we had croissants and hot drinks before a stroll around the market.
We also popped in to the cathedral and the cloisters before returning to their house. I really, really didn’t want to leave two lovely friends and such a beautiful place and there must have been lots more to talk about, but Eileen was all packed up and ready to go. So after long goodbyes and promises to catch up in August in London, we drove down the tree-lined driveway and headed south again. We decided to get a good distance covered towards Carcassonne, so that we wouldn’t be tempted to turn back to Gazaupouy. We passed Auch and pushed on past fields and fields of ripening wheat and sunflowers, still pushing up only green leaves. Jane is right, the wheat down here in France turns a very dark brown, almost a rusty brown, unlike the blonder colour up north. The promise of seeing so many fields of sunflowers in flower in the near future is quite exciting. I hope we don’t miss them. We already miss the Barretts.