Week Three

The weather is now getting much cooler, in fact for a couple of mornings we have had frost on the grass, something I haven’t seen for many years and don’t want to see too often. Although it is extremely cold in the morning, by mid morning the sun breaks through and much warmer. Not warm enough to peel off the cardi but still quite pleasant.
The shooting season is in full force at the moment and for those of you who don’t know we are surrounded by woods with plumeriers (hunting tunnels/lodges) all around. The French are shooting at the migrating pigeons, since we have been here there has been one man the whole time in the woods and at the week ends he has been joined by a few others. It is quite amazing as we may only hear up to three shots a day and on the week end about six shots, not really sure what they are doing down there, anyway they must be getting some birds as we were given a present last week of two pigeons (just what I wanted!) Terry being the receiver of these fine gifts, prepared and cooked them, luckily my brother had just arrived so the boys sat down to consume this French gormet feast, apparently it was quite nice meat but a bit overcooked. Life is getting very Francoise, with the pigeons, mushrooms and chestnuts, we are reaping the benefits of living in the countryside. The mushrooms (see photos) are most beautiful to look at and because they are all so different we have to take them to the local pharmacy for identification purposes, the two different species in the photos are both edible, not that we are going partake in this gastronomic delight, in the Nerac market they are selling cepes (a more exotic mushroom) for 26 euros a kilo (Aussie about $48 probably in UK about 18 pounds) apparently they are tough as old boots and have to be cooked slowly for up to an hour.
We are planning to go to the Pyrenees mountains tomorrow, we are going for about two or three days, I am a bit worried about how cold it is going to be, so on the way to collect the hire car we are going to go warm clothes shopping (we bought gloves yesterday), we have discovered a hiking shop that sells fantastic quality ‘polar’ clothing for a very reasonable price, much cheaper than we would pay in Australia. (maybe there is more demand here!). We plan to go to a ski ing resort called Cauterets which is South of Lourdes, I think it will take about 2 – 3 hours depending how often we stop to take photos, we are really looking forward to seeing a new part of France for us. Talking of which, when my brother was here over the week end, we went exploring in the car and found a beautiful lake about 20 minutes away, it has a man made beach and also swimming pools for children, completely around the lake is a bike path, yes, you guessed I am going to drag Terry away from his pottering around the house and hopefully get some exercise with the bikes (puncture kit and pump in tow.) We live in a very interesting part of South West France or Sud-Ouest as it is called, there is fantastic countryside, villages and interesting places to visit. We have been told of some Roman ruins about 10/15 mins away which are well worth a visit, so next week when we have some visitors we will add another place to our must see itinary.
Hope you enjoy the photos and will be touch next week.
Photos includes: Our bats (another story for another time) behind the shutters, a drunk on the steps of the local wine Cave, joined by Terry & John (my brother), mushrooms, pigeons, a couple of pictures of food at Nerac market, Poudinas, we had to help a local French women to move her wood off the road before we could drive along the road.