Today's Festival

If there's a festival, we're there. Today's festival was the arrival of the 'Transhumance'. This turned out to be 60-odd woolly sheep, some woolly dogs, their woolly shepherd and a donkey being marched into the village with drums and pipes. They had come all the way from the Pyrenees and we waited for an hour or so with all the other villagers to follow them to the town square and then join in the festival. We ate (yes, again) yummy snails, crushed strawberries, sausages of cepes, chevre, fig, local beer . . . .

The sheep retired (collapsed) under some trees - it was a really hot day. We danced, bought stuff and generally carried on.

A fabulous French feast

How fantastic to spend a Sunday afternoon at Corrine and Christian's beautiful Bordeaux home. Lucky for us Corrine had zipped home from her vintage in Portugal. We shared a feast with her sons, parents and ex-husband and it was magnificent. Clive said he felt privelged have shared some rare and exceptional local, Portugese and Hungarian wines that we would normally not have tried. Harry had a fabulous time with Corrine's boys and au pair who hand-fed him and saw to his every need!! A really great day.

The Festival of the Pigeon

Another beautiful day. Lunch in Sauternes overlooking Chateau Guiraud . . . gorgeous. We then took a leisurely drive to a Pigeon festival in Bazas via a true blue castle (we stumbled upon this one). The pigeon festival was really something - the pigeon is the special food of Bazas (yes, we're talking food again) and to celebrate its 'season' there's a colourful procession through the square. Each village has a colourful costume to represent their regional delicacy eg: melons, garlic, cepes (mushies), bayonne ham, and Bazas bouef. The procession was piped to the town cathedral, led by a confused looking pigeon. . . celebrations followed the blessing of the food in the cathedral . . . ahh such reverence for the food . . . .

Bec arrives!

Bec has arrived to spend 12 days with us. We are stoked to have her here with us and glad that Gavin, Laura and Nell could spare her! We picked her up from the train station in Bordeaux. After 30 hours of travel we're not sure she knew where she was.

Our home

Our gite (cottage) is within the walled gardens of Chateau Dudon and a few metres away from the chateau. It is part of the group of buildings that make up the winery and cellar. It has four bedrooms and two bathrooms, an oyster shucker and a set of encyclopedias for 'The woman of the Family'covering French history, cooking, decorating, sewing, jobs around the home and other important topics - these books are so comprehensive I'm wondering what's left for the man of the house . . .

Silly Sausage!

Our friend 'Will' joined us while doing some work in France. He gleefully informed us that the delicious local sausages we'd been hoeing into were mostly horse and donkey meat. Sure enough, we attend the LaBrede local markets and there's an entire van sporting every kind of equine cut. The upside of William's visit was that he recommended a restaurant Sateurnes village which was really great and in a gorgeous setting.

Here's a photo of 'Will' with the offending items. Bridget is now eating less sausage - which is a good thing.

Our village

Barsac is a pretty functional little village in the Gironde area of Bordeaux. It's where they grow Sateurnes for sticky wines. We have fully explored its boulangerie, two clothes shops, butcher and playground. It's a good place to buy a bagette and get your haircut - anything more than this and it's six kilometres to Langon.

One of the best parts about our spot is the walk into town - past the vineyards and some very snazzy neighbouring chateaux.