Day 24 Nogaro

Monday 10th October and today is a 21km walk to the next town. But before we get to that let's talk about last night's meal. There were just five guests so Marie-France started us off with an aperitif. It was like a kir but made with armagnac topped up with white wine. It is served in a special glass with a rappier down its side and the proportions of armagnac and wine are defined by points on the rappier. This is the armagnac pays and Marie-France is passionate about the local product which is single distilled from four grape varieties and has always been intended for the local French market. Comparisons are often made with cognac which is double distilled from one grape variety and was developed for export.

After dinner we get a digestif of, you guessed it, armagnac; a 13 year old one. After some information on the product we are taught how to drink it. You are supposed to warm the drink in your hand then drink as this helps bring out the flavour. After we have finished our drink there is the obligatory test. We each sniff our empty glasses and are asked to describe what we smell. Most go with a version of fruity and, maybe because we had just eaten it, I go with tarte aux pomme. The real answer is prunes because this is a prune growing area and some of the pruniness from the local ether gets into the drink. It may have been the power of suggestion but with the answer I now get Far Pruneaux, the French desert made with prunes. A very pleasant meal and with two Australians and a Japanese woman happy to translate it made for easy conversation for once.

Breakfast is a self-service affair of tartine. Though thus is bread with either butter or jam I should say that the jams are mostly homemade and may be fig, strawberry, rhubarb, berries, melon or as was the case this morning orange and coffee. In some places you will have the choice of salted or unsalted butter.

I start off still in the Gers department and they are keen to highlight their celebrities which includes the real life D'Artagnan; Alexandre Dumas based the three musketeers (plus D'Artagnan!) on real people. 

Geographically speaking as I write this I don’t know where I am but I am assuming I have wandered into, or close to, the South East corner of the Landes, a department that is home to large areas of flat marsh land and also to the recognised sport of Course Landaise. This informal running of bulls evolved into a sport that demonstrates skill and bravery. This ring is in Monciet which was my halfway point.

Further on in Nogaro there is another area.

Maybe we can come back to this after I've attended geography class but the map below shows how I travelled through Haute Loire, Lozere, Cantal (briefly), Aveyron, Lot, Tarn et Garonne, Gers and now (I assume) Landes. I'll just have a long stretch in the Pyrenees Atlantique. The corresponding regions are Auvergne, Occitanie and Aquitaine.

I stop at a café today for a double helping of coffee and pastries and sure enough all the usual suspects from the last few days drop by.

Nogaro has a church that confuses me as it has mighty columns supporting the roof, if of a generally consistent design but one and a half of the columns is/are totally different to the rest in cross-section, height, no capital. Churches do get rebuilt on old foundations, extended or redesigned but I just couldn't find a plausible reason.

My accommodation today is 30 minutes walk out of town and in the wrong direction which was an oversight on my part but the place is worth it. I had to book 32 nights of accommodation excluding the end points based on the guidebook's coded descriptions so I am happy to take what I get. Yet again, as we are close to the seasons end and as I have booked out of the way accommodation I seem to have a room to myself. 

During the usual sit down with a cold cordial I explain that I am retired so I have time for walking and cycling and when her husband comes over she explains that I am "young retired". The French for retired is one of my favourite new words this trip though I need to remember it is pronounced "RO-TRET"; I always get such a good response about me not being old enough to have retired. The gite owners have their own club or association so they tend to know each other. When I say I was as Marie-France's and that she liked armagnac I got a knowing smile in return. I also mention the hunters I had just seen and she explained there were alot of wild boar around at the moment.