Wednesday, July 07, 2010

Making hay while the sun shines



No, no...I haven't given up writing to become a farmer. I went to a Democrats abroad picnic outside of Toulouse this weekend with friends on a wonderful spot of ground between a lake and a farmer's field. It was fun to eat kosher dill pickets and get Heinz sweet relish and talk with people whose politics are close to mine. One brave Republican did show up. It must have been the hamburgers and hot dogs that drew him.

A box of kittens with an adopt me sign was there and they all went to homes. My favourite was a milky beige, fluffy male who luckily was adopted before I did anything stupid like take him home. He was christened Cappuccino. Good thing no one brought Japanese chin puppies.



After the picnic we went to Auch, the home of the The Musketeers and D'Artagnan's statue was there in full plumed hat and caped glory. However, it was this 15th century building that caught my eye. To keep the international spirit we ate at an Irish pub where I had a Hawaiian salad and one of my friends had a Belgian cheese dish.





The couple I was travelling with wanted to check out the different Armagnac domaines. I have to admit that I found the taste just slightly left of spitting out,* except for the
relatively new floc and the fruit-flavoured versions. However, each domaine was in a wonderful old building surrounded by vineyards. The grapes were originally brought to the region by the Romans. This domaine was in the 16th century château that belonged to the Bishop of Condom (the name of the next town. Does anyone see the irony of having a Bishop of Condom when the Church disses their use?




When my daughter was little she always had to visit the toilets of any restaurant we went to. In fact if she forgot the restaurants, she never forgot the toilets. So Llara this interesting toilet paper dispenser is for you.

*My first boss at IEC would probably consider this a sacking offense only because burning at the stake is no longer allowed.

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