The flight to Heathrow is good and we arrive on time at 0530, since we are transiting we make our way to the lounge and settle in for a few hours as our flight to Toulouse doesn’t leave ‘til 1400.   Fortunately it leaves on time and we land in France just before five.    Having decided to use our British passports to avoid a wait, it takes some time for our bags to arrive and then an inordinate amount of time to pick up a hire car.    Fortunately by the this time the rush hour seems to have abated a bit but we still manage to take a wrong turning and go round the block again to get back on to the autoroute.   Getting used to traffic coming at you from the wrong side takes a little while but a large percentage of this journey is straightforward at 130kph, the legal limit on the autoroute.  

We’re a bit later than we expected but we’re met with hugs, a glass of wine and a light meal.

Probably not too much to write about this time, we have been here lots of times before and look forward to a reasonably relaxing time.    So I will post some photos and only a few words.

  Our plan was to go away with our friends Ken and Pat for few days and Pat had booked a gite near Duras.   Gites are holiday rentals, usually converted farmhouses. 

In this part of France the barn is often connected to the living quarters.   Our place in Auriac is no exception, our part is the converted old barn with its thick walls and high ceilings it is nice and cool at this time of year. 

Unfortunately, it is quite close to a fairly busy road which spoils it a little. 

 

 

Just up the road is the little town of Duras.   Typical of many fortified towns, the chateau (castle) was built between the 12th and 14th century on a hill providing a commanding view over the surrounding countryside.

 

These towns have narrow streets with shops and lots of cafes where we can sit for lunch, a     coffee and / or a glass of wine, watch the world go by, listen to the conversations around us and try to revise our French.   After only a couple of days we still feel that we want to say ‘lentement, lentement, s’il vous plait’!

Today we had our first variation on a decaf cappucino!  It came in a tall glass with a great swirl of whipped cream on the top!  

One of the highlights of the weekend is lunch at the Chateau Vigiers.    The location is beautiful and is all about golf and our table is at the edge of the practice green complete with metal works of art.  As you can see it was a glorious day and the meal and the wine were just superb.

On another day we went to St Emillion, one of the most well known wine regions in the world.   The wine produced here is mostly Merlot which is blended with varying amounts of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet sauvignon, some is even 100% merlot.   Next to St Emillion is Pomerol another well-known red wine area. 

The grapes in these photos are possibly the most famous of all Pomerol vineyards, Petrus…….!!!! needless to say we have never bought a bottle of it.

I’m working on a video of the the countryside around St Emillion and Pomerol but it may have to be an add-on.

We had a great week with our friends Pat and Ken in Minzac but now we are driving south back towards Toulouse and a bit further south to Sabarat, to catch up with more friends, Amanda and Neil.