Ken's ancestral tour through
South-West France - 4 - Tours from Fourcès 2

Friday 27th June 2003

We crept up the road to Mezin (not very attractive) & Nerac (this site in French), which was, with a lovely old town & a new town that was not much newer on the other side of the river (the Baise again), where I had parked. As yesterday, I dumped Avis at Notre Dame & collected the car. Henri IV had a castle here from which he ran the country for half the year.

We went on a partly green road towards Agen, stopping at Cazuban, a village apparently undergoing gentrification, as the church has modern glass (not that uncommon out here) & a modern altar with a concrete roof. We also stopped in Moncaut, very pretty. Agen looked adversive, so we took the road to La Plume, a village not up to the best local standard & off on the green road to Condom, stopping in Ligardes for what turned out to be dinner-at-lunch, three courses for €11.50 each, being a huge plate of dried meat & salami, roast pork (Avis) & veal (me) with pesto spaghetti & quiche (!). Pud, ice cream or 'patisserie', which was a sort of big custard tart. We stopped at Gazaupouy (link to a gite), off on a side road, which looked interesting on the map & certainly was. We suspect gentrification again, with a church in the older walled part but some of that part evidently gardened. The wall was a proper one with a fire step. A unexpected treat.

On the road from Condom to Fourcès, we had a look at Larrouche sur l'Osse, another charming place. We stopped at the Fourcès car park, so I could photo the clock tower, which has a bad crack in one side, then under the arches. We tried to get into the church but it was the first we have found locked. We poked round the back of the village a bit more before returning to the Garros. We had tea in the garden, telling Anne that Jack had been a bit disappointing as a conversationalist. She later told us he had looked at our web site & would have had lots to say if he had realised I was in to music but he is a jazz fan, so would have had more to say to Avis. Meanwhile, we went to the expensive Auberge for salads at €18 for 2. We read in the Garros garden after, where Anne gave us glasses of wine.