Appellation Spring Continued; On to the Tarn et Garonne

 The two principal wine appellations in the area we stayed the first full week of our trip are Irouleguy and Jurancon. As I mentioned before, Irouleguy is one of the smallest AOC's in France, and there are only 9 producers. By the end of our week here we had bought wine from 7 of the 9 producers, either by visiting the producer or buying the wines at shops. The majority of Irouleguy wines are red, but most, if not all producers make some white and rose.

    Jurancon, on the other hand, while also a fairly small appellation, has around 60 producers, and only white wine is made. On our last full day in the Pays-Basque, we took a drive to the Jurancon area, stopping at a couple of small villages on the way, including the Bastide town of Navarrenx.

We visited 2 Jurancon producers in the afternoon – Domaine Bordnave in Monein, and Chemin Larredya in Chapelle de Rousse. Like all of the Jurancon producers, both are small operations making dry and sweet Jurncon wines from Gros Manseng, Petit Manseng, and sometimes Petit Corbu grapes grown on small parcels on the property. We first stopped at Domaine Bordnave, and bought several bottles of 3 different sweet Jurancons.

  We then drove to Chemin Larredya to meet Jean-Marc Grussaute, the proprietor, who I had contacted at the recommendation of the New England representative of their US importer, Wine Traditions. Monsieur Grussaute drove up in his tractor when we arrived, and said that his mother would give us a tour and tasting as he was in the middle of doing work in the vineyard. His mother, together with their dog, led us to the tasting room, where she poured their 2 dry and 2 sweet Jurancons, plus a bonus of a 2006 late harvest Jurancon that was made in miniscule quantities and was no longer available for sale. She then gave us a tour of the cellars and bottling area, after which we returned to the tasting room where she poured us a little more of the late harvest wine. We bought the 2 sweet wines that were available, and she also gave us a bottle of one of the dry Jurancons that was no longer available for sale.

Tasting room and vineyard of Chemin Larredya

The next day we left our gite in Saint Jean Pied de Port and drove towards Auvillar in the Tarn ey Garonne department, where we will be spending the next week. Auvillar is another of the Plus Beaux Villages, and when we arrived, it was clear that it merited that designation.

Church in Auvillar from outside our gite

Market hall and arcades

A Week In The Bearn

        It's now Friday, but I'm only up to writing about last Sunday, as I have fallen far behind on writing my blog. On Sunday morning, 4 of us drove into Pau, which is the largest city in the area. Although it only has a population of around 80,000, it seems quite large. There is a large indoor market hall in Pau open Monday through Saturday, but on Sunday morning there is a small outdoor market, and we stopped there for some provisions and took a short walk around the center of town. We walked towards the Chateau de Pau, which stands high above the town, and a woman who works there said that since it was the first Friday of the month, tours of the chateau were free. Since it was almost noon, we decided to go back to our gite and return to Pau in the afternoon to visit the chateau.

       After lunch at our gite we drove back to Pau, which is only about a 20-25 minute drive. After a short wait at the chateau, we joined a group for a tour. The chateau was built in the Middle Ages, and is most notable as the residence of Henry IV, the French King known as the Father of France.

CHATEAU DE PAU AND ITS GARDENS

         On Monday morning we went back to Pau to go to the large indoor market. It was quite impressive, with food vendors of all types. Among the things we picked up were magrets de canard (duck breasts), foie gras, and various vegetables. After leaving the market we came back to the gite for lunch. In the afternoon we drove to the town of Morlaas, where the postal agency was located which was supposed to have my suitcase, and they did. I was pleased, as I had just about given up hope of ever seeing it again. Suitcase in tow, we drove to the larger town of Oloron Ste. Marie, and spent a little time strolling through the town and along the river.

THE RIVER IN OLORON

          On Tuesday morning we went to the weekly market in the nearby village of Nay, and picked up some provisions. On the way to the market we walked into the courtyard of the striking Maison Carreé, which is now a museum, and also took a look at the river that flowed through town. In the afternoon, 3 of us drove to a couple of Jurancon wine producers, Chateau Jolys and Domaine Lapeyre, and tasted and bought a number of wines, both dry and sweet Jurancons.

        Wednesday, four of us drove south towards the Pyrenees, stopping first in the village of Bielle, where we took a stroll around town and stopped in at a boulangerie. Bielle is a lovely town, and we were greeted by a dog up on his hind legs behind a gate. He seemed very friendly, until another dog came by and they attempted to fight while separated by the gate. Next, we drove to the town of Laruns, which is at the gates of the Pyrenees mountains, and took a walk around the town. We then headed back towards our gite for lunch, with a brief stop in Rebenac to pick up a couple of baguettes.

      After lunch we split up, and Ann and I headed off to first visit a Jurancon winery, Domaine Montesquiou, which had been recommended by Leon Stolarski, an English importer of French wines. Like almost all of the Jurancon wineries, it's a very small operation. We tried one Jurancon sec, and their two sweet Jurancons: Amistat, which is the less sweet of the two, and La Grappe d'Or, a dessert-style wine.  The wines were all exceptional, and we bought several bottles. I had come to the conclusion that there is no bad Jurancon wine.

       After leaving the winery we drove to Salies de Bearn, a town formerly well-known for its salt production, and still known as a spa town. We took a walk through the center of town, and although most shops were closed, it was a very pleasant stroll through the narrow old streets and along the river. When we left Salies, we decided to head to a dairy farm to the north east that was known for its ice cream. After making a few wrong turns, we found the farm just outside a small village, and made it there 4 minutes before closing time. Their freezer was well-stocked with ice cream, and we picked up cassis sorbet, hazelnut ice cream, and caramel with sea salt ice cream. We then drove back to our gite, where Ghisaline had prepared a dinner featuring pintade (guinea hen) in a wine sauce, using the pintade we had picked up at the market the day before.

VIEWS OF SALIES DE BEARN

More Bearn Villages

After lunch at the gite on Thursday, our first stop was the small village of Bellocq, an old bastide town which has the ruins of a medieval chateau.  Also in Bellocq is the Cave de Bellocq, the wine cooperative of the Bearn AOC.  As small and obscure as Irouleguy is, Bearn is even more obscure, with few producers besides the cooperative, although the Bearn AOC can apparently also be used by Madiran and Jurancon producers.  We tasted a few Bearn reds and roses at the Cave de Bellocq, and also some sweet white Jurancons made by their affiliated cooperative in the Jurancon region, and picked up several bottles of each color.

After leaving Bellocq we drove to Orthez, one of the larger towns in the Bearn area, where we stopped for an hour or so to stroll around the town.  There are numerous well-preserved old buildings in the medieval part of Orthez, and the 13th century Chateau Moncade, whose towering Donjon looks over the town, is very impressive.

On our way back to Saint Jean Pied de Port at the end of the day we drove the back roads through a lot of villages, including the larger town of Mauleon-Licharre, which has an ancient chateau fort high above the town. The chateau is closed in the off season, and in any event was in the process of being restored, but we managed to get some good photos from the grounds, and also some photos of the town below.

End of the Week in the Dordogne

         When I woke up Thursday morning and looked out of the dining room window, it appeared that the Dordogne River had disappeared during the night. Eventually the fog burned off and the sun slowly appeared. By the time we headed off for the morning, the weather was beautiful. We first drove to the village of La Roque Gageac, another of the Plus Beaux Villages de France. La Roque Gageac is located on the Dordogne, and the village stretches up several levels from the river up to the cliffs. In fact, several houses are built right into the cliff walls. We parked by the Dordogne and walked up into and around the village, and past a privately owned chateau just outside the center. We made one stop in town, at an artist's gallery on an upper level of the village. The artist paints watercolors, mostly of scenes of the region, and he said he works in isolation in the woods all winter painting, then opens his shop in La Roque Gageac during the tourist season to try and sell what he painted. His paintings were beautiful, and we bought one depicting La Roque Gageac from the river.

Dordogne from Upper La Roque Gageac

La Roque Gageac from Outskirts of Town

         After leaving La Roque Gageac we headed back in the direction of our gite, then decided to take a detour to Chateau de Marqueyssac, whose grounds have basically been turned into a botanical garden. A striking peacock greeted us at the entrance to the grounds, and we spent about 1 ½ hours strolling through the park. A lot of the park runs along the Dordogne, and there are some amazing views of the river and nearby chateaus. At one point you can get a great view of the chateaus of Beynac, Castelnaud and Feyrac.

The Greeter at Chateau de Marqueyssac

Castelnaud as seen from Marqueyssac

       We then returned to our gite and had a late lunch on the terrace. While the weather forecast most of the week had been iffy and the weather was often variable, we had managed to eat almost all of our lunches and dinners out on the terrace.

         Late in the afternoon we drove to Sarlat again. Without a market, parking in the center was quite easy. Ann wanted to visit the Manoir de Gisson, a magnificent medieval house dating from the 13^th Century, and I just wanted to stroll around the center of town, so we split up for an hour. Although Sarlat is quite touristy, the buildings in the center of the town are spectacular. Many of them now house restaurants and shops of all kinds catering to tourists.

Manoir de Gisson

Buildings in Sarlat

           After leaving Sarlat, we headed back to our gite for dinner. It was still quite mild, and the rain held off, so we again had an aperitif and dinner on the terrace. We were joined for aperitifs by the gite owners' cat, who was happy to eat some of the leftover pintade from early in\the week. We finished the Cahors-area Malbec rosé that we had opened at lunch, then had foie gras with the Domaine Lapeyre sweet Jurancon we had purchased the prior week. With dinner we had a bottle of Chateau Bouscassé Madiran.

Cat Joining us for Rose

          Friday morning we drove to Chateau dePuymartin to visit the chateau. There was a 1 hour tour, principally devoted to touring several rooms located throughout the North Tower of the chateau (the round tower below). The chateau was first built in the 13^th century, was pretty much destroyed during the Hundred Years War, then eventually rebuilt around 1450, and has been in the same family line since then. The current owners live in the South Tower today.

North and South Towers from Two Persepctives

        After leaving Puymartin we came back to the gite for lunch. Since we only have a few days of our vacation left, and won't be at a house after today, we've been trying to work our way through a lot of the food and wine we bought earlier in the trip. In particular, we're trying to reduce our cheese and wine supply. With lunch, we had most of a bottle of the Domaine de Cause Viognier we bought a few days ago, and once again it was superb.

        After lunch we decided to take a leisurely walk along the Dordogne. At the edge of the village there's a walking path that goes along the river, and we walked along it for awhile. It was the same route as the boat tour we had taken, and we saw some of the same sights, albeit from a slightly different perspective.

Views from along the Dordogne

         After our walk we got in the car and drove to the nearby village of Domme, a little past La Roque Gageac. Domme is another of the Plus Beaux Villages de France (there are a lot in this part of the Dordogne), and is situated high above the Dordogne River where it makes a curve below the town. We parked below the village, and walked up to the top. Some of the towns we've visited this week were impressive because of their architecture and historical buildings, and some because of the views from the town, but Domme has both spectacular views and lovely old stone buildings. And a great ice cream shop where we stopped for a break.

Entrance to the Village

The Dordogne from Domme

Old Gate in Domme

Ice Cream Shop in Domme

         We left Domme in the late afternoon and drove back to our gite through some small villages. We had aperitifs on the terrace (without the cat this time), finishing off the bottle of Domaine Lapeyre Jurancon, then had veal chops, asparagus and a baked eggplant dish for dinner, with a bottle of the Domaine de Cause Cahors. And a cheese board with several goat cheeses from the past 2 weeks. After dinner we took a late night walk up towards the chateau. The path was well-lit, and two cats that we had seen earlier in the week were roaming around the grounds just outside the chateau. All in all, it was a great finish to a terrific week.

From The Bearn To The Dordogne

          Saturday morning, after cleaning up the gite, Ann and I left to drive to the Dordogne, while Ghislaine drove Cathy and Jim to Toulouse for their flight home to England. Our drive to the Dordogne was very long, with quite a lot of inclement weather along the way. We broke up the journey a couple of times, the first one to visit Chateau Viella again and pick up some more of their wine. Later on in the drive we stopped briefly in the town of Praysass, and took a short stroll around the town.

Praysass

        Finally, we arrived at the medieval village of Beynac et Cazenac, where we were spending the second week of our trip. The village is full of winding, steep streets, and the walk from the gite to our parking space, which we had to make several times to unload our luggage, wine and cheese, was somewhat taxing. But it was worth it just to see the view of the Dordogne River from the terrace and the dining room. After unpacking, we took a stroll down towards the river and to a small group of food shops on the outskirts of the village. We picked up some provisions at the butcher shop, bakery, and small grocery store, then headed back to our gite where we sat on the terrace and had some sweet Jurancon wine as an aperitif.

View of the Dordogne From Our Dining Room

View from our Terrace

Center of Beynac from Above

          On Sunday morning we went to the weekly market in the nearby town of St. Cyprien. We could see from the parking situation that the center of town was very crowded, so we parked well away from the center and walked towards the market. Although St. Cyprien is just a modest sized town, the market was massive, with well over 100 vendors spread out throughout the town. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the market, picking up provisions for the next couple of days, since many shops are closed on Mondays. After leaving St. Cyprien, we drove back to our gite for lunch. The weather was glorious, sunny and warm, so we had lunch on the terrace.

         After lunch we decided to drive to the Vezere Valley and stop at a couple of Les Plus Beaux Villages de France (The Most Beautiful Villages in France): Saint-Leon-sur-Vezere and Limeuil. Our first stop was St.-Leon-sur-Vezere, which, in addition to having many beautiful old buildings, has a chateau, a magnificent church, and a large manor house in the center of the village. We strolled through the village and along the Vezere River, which runs along the outskirts of the village.

         Leaving St.-Leon-sur-Vezere, we drove along the Vezere River to Limeuil, which is high above the confluence of the Vezere and Dordogne Rivers. We parked away from the village, and walked towards the Vezere and up towards the center of Limeuil. We strolled around the beautiful village, and visited the botanical park, which, among other things, has outstanding views of the Dordogne and Vezere Rivers.

Two Views of the Dordogne and Vezere Rivers

Botanical Gardens

    After leaving Limeuil, we drove back to the gite for an aperitif and dinner. We had bought a spit-roasted pintade (guinea hen) at the market that morning, which we had for dinner, along with local asparagus and a bottle of Madiran from Chateau Viella. The weather was still beautiful, so we had dinner on the terrace.