Medieval Festival in Auvillar

Auvillar "d'un plus beaux village de France" in deepest South West France never ceases to amaze me with the events and activities going on. This sleepy little bastide village of around 1000 residents is perched on a hill over looking the River Garonne in the Midi Pyrenees and awakens from is temporary winter slumber in a blaze of glory around April each year.

Inhabitents swell in numbers for the summer and the village rises to the influx of tourists by putting on a show in every sense of the word. This year through the winter the narrow cobbled streets have been renewed, antique style street lamps been repainted and renovation work on some of the old buildings has started in ernest. The first big event of the year was at the end of April when for the first time the village hosted a medieval festival.

Locals, people from neighbouring villages and towns, tourists and pilgrims walking the Saint Jacques de compostelle all gathered to witness the all day spectacle.

Knights on horses, medieval ceremonies including a wedding outside the church, jousting, sword fighting, fire eating and open air plays as well as a medieval supper occupied everyone for the day which again was blessed by fantastic weather. Even the children were catered for with rides on the jousting horses, play sword fights and a set of stocks took centre stage for a while when parents (who didn't need much ecouraging) put their kids in them for the customary photographs.

The next festival (St Noe) is 18th and 19th June where the village celebrates the vine and blesses the forth comming wine harvest in a traditional way. As always its is an excuse for a good old knees up with of course plenty of wine!! Make a date in your diary and check our availability.

More wine tasting - regular occurance now!

We have had a steady stream of visitors, in this our first year of running our holiday gite business, and each time someone visits we are recommending a trip out to Saint Sardos and to Donzac to the cave of Cotes du Brulhois. Not that we are encouraging people to increase their alcohol consumption of course............but a lovely way to spend a sunny afternoon in France.

Last Friday...yes you've guessed it we went back again! This time the people at Saint Sardos recognised me!! and invited us into the bottling plant to watch my favourite Gilles du Morban being bottled. Our guests purchased a number of cases after a condsiderable time testing different wines and as a thank you we were given a discount and a free bottle of wine!

Leaving Saint Sardos behind we drove the short 25 minutes back towards Auvillar and on into Dune and Donzac to find the wine cave. The lady there, who was supporting a neck brace (we didnt dare ask!) offered a number of white, rose and red wines to taste. Again, already feeling more than a bit relaxed from the previous tasting, our guests purchased yet more red and rose wine! Good job they were driving their own car home!

Later that evening, we discussed our afternoon over a BBQ and a few bottles of the said wine by the pool and went to bed happy and relaxed.

So at Le Farat, we have now decided to offer a wine tasting trip once a week to our guests, with me driving so that everyone can partake in a tipple or two and not have to worry.

Who's going to be next to experience what Le Farat has to offer?

A hot weekend in Auvillar

After mixed weather for the last few weeks this weekend has really come good. 35 degrees since Friday, we have been enjoying ourselves by the pool and now that our gite guests have gone, taking advantage of some spare time enjoying the area, although mountains of ironing await!

Megan's friend Daisy has been with us and we have been travelling around the area visiting some of the sights, (with my trusty camera in tow!) Markets, historic towns and local eateries, not to mention visiting Saint Sardos again!

After numerous attempts of going to Moissac and finding the Cloisters closed, I finally made it inside this morning, and wow was it worth the wait.

Hope you like the pics!

French village dog show, my ass.....more like crufts en france!

My youngest daughter has been getting rather excited recently as we had been told that each year Auvillar holds a dog show. I spoke to Natalie my friend and she encouraged us to enter the little Jack Russell we have. Thinking that it would be nice for my youngest to take part with our pet dog in a little country french village we registered.

How wrong we were! This was not a little country village dog show with side stalls and a pet class for kids and aged dogs that could do tricks with cast off childrens toys....this was Crufts en France!!!

We arrived and registered feeling a bit excited until we saw the professional cages of dogs being groomed and pampered to look their best and owners running them up and down the park to show off their best lines! Alarm bells didnt ring all day really until it got to our class (I put it down to the heat myself, I need some excuse).

I gave the dog to my daughter to take into the ring, with a friend who could speak better french than my daughter and stood back to watch!!

OMG. Firstly, the judge clearly had not seen a Jack Russell before and had been reading up on the breed from a little pocket guide of dogs on the table as my daughter entered the ring. I know Jack Russells come in all shapes and sizes but our little love is a "Parsons Jack Russell" so a bit taller than the normal dog and the only type of Jack Russell to be registered with the UK Kennel Club. Clearly he did not know that!

Equally, he was being judged as a specimen rather than a pet, which is very different. The judge then went on to say in his loud french voice that our dog would not be able to compete as he had lost a tooth and asked how he had lost it...I said when digging for rabbits!!

Then to my horror he also said "he has no balls and unless he has a vets certificate as to why they have been removed and his pedigree he cannot be entered in this dog show!"

Well, how embarassing, especially as all gathered we obviously professional dog breeders, I wanted to crawl into the hole the dog would normally dig in our garden when living a happy family pet dogs life!!

Fortunately, our entrance money was not wasted as my daughter, very redfaced, left the ring with a consolation prize and a bottle of wine, so at least we could drown our sorrows!

If we do this again next year we need a real dog, nearly bought one too, but not quite!