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Bayonne & Biarritz
After breakfast, we fill up a bowl with cat biscuits and another with water before inviting Molly into the car and heading out west. It’s sunny and the temperature is supposed to go up to approximately 23℃ this afternoon. For now, it’s 16… But the car has a heating system, which we turn up a…
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About an incredibly athletic cat and 5 pots of fig chutney
For the second time this week, we are woken in the dead of night by one of the cats. At 4 o’clock in the morning, Dusty jumps in through the window and demands to be let out of the bedroom. We do as she asks and let her out on the landing. She stops yelling…
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Small outings in the vicinity of Tostat & Pau
Last Friday, after a morning spent making fig chutney, we made a small tour to explore the surroundings and ended up in Pau. Which happens to be a lovely city. We had a precursory look at the castle, which looks gorgeous. We had Molly with us, and dogs aren’t allowed there, so we went and…
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Chutney of Cocagne figs by Christophe and Karen
This morning, we did a trial version of our very own fig chutney. We didn’t want to make a large amount yet, for we had to make sure the result was good. Well, it is more than good. This chutney is absolutely delicious! So we’ll make more of it soon (since we have about 3…
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The market of Tarbes and an abundance of figs and walnuts
We had heard from multiple sources that the market of Tarbes is worth a visit. Allegedly, they have fair prices. This we wanted to see for ourselves and today is the day. We have visited many markets over the past few months, and all of them were extremely pricy. Not at all what we were…
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An excursion into Gascony, resulting in 12 kg of apples
We are very serious about building our business. But with the lovely weather, we cannot possibly stay indoors all day. So after a long morning bent over our laptops, we load Molly into the car and hit the road. This time, we drive north, into Gascony. On the map given to us by the nice…
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The road along the Adour (from Tostat to Lesponne and Col d’Aspin)
Today is Sunday and we celebrate with a breakfast of fresh croissants and petit pains au chocolat. Even though the autumn officially started two days ago, it is sunny and warm, as it has been for the past 3 months. The lady at the tourist office of Tarbes gave us a map of the district…
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A visit to the city of Tarbes
We start the day doing yoga on the lawn in front of the house, followed by a guided meditation, with Erica. She has little experience with either, but applies herself admirably. And she’s quite supple for someone who hasn’t done yoga before. After breakfast, we take Molly for an exploratory walk through the village of…
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Visiting Albi and driving to Tostat
Our parking place for the night turns out to be quiet and dark after all. Even though we are right next to a road, there was no traffic at all during the night. And no lights near either, so from those perspectives we had a good night. The fact that it was very warm and…
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Driving along the river Tarn from Millau to Albi
The night was cold and so we wait for the sun to rise above the mountain before we get out of bed and the car. Christophe moves the car a bit so it’s in the sun and he prepares breakfast. I had found blackberries nearby yesterday and return there to pick some for our muesli.…
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Bambouseraie and Gorges du Tarn
After a reasonably good nights sleep on the parking lot of the Bambouseraie, we do our meditation in bed and get up at 8:15h. It’s fully light and since we are in a public place, I have to wait until 9:30h when the Bambouseraie opens its doors to use the toilet. I make it, but…
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Montboucher-sur-Jabron to Anduze through the Ardèche
We left Monboucher-sur-Jabron this morning at 10:40. Without any finite goal, we traverse Montelimar and happen to pass the boulangerie (baker) from yesterday. So we make a short stop there to admire all the pastries they have. We let several people go before us, just to have more time to drool over all the beautiful…
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Les Trois Becs, Via ferrata de Collias, and more
We arrived at Monboucher-sur-Jabron on Thursday evening and spent 10 days there with Jeremie, Christophe’s brother. We had thought to spend a lot of time at our laptops, working, but they turned out to be action packed days. Of course we did work, but not as much as planned. We visited lovely little villages and…
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Visiting the Cadre Noir in Saumur
Independant of each other, we both have had a wish to visit the Cadre Noir in Saumur for many, many years. Since Saint-Jean-de-Sauves is only one hour from Saumur, our stay here is an excellent opportunity to finally make our wishes come true. We had seen on the website that there is the possibility of…
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A story of red bricks, figs, honey and bagpipes
After saying goodbye to the family in Lubersac, we went south to visit Brive la Gaillarde and Collonges la Rouge. They are not far from Lubersac, but we hadn’t had time to visit during our stay, because we were so engrossed with “our” horses and the ones in Pompadour. Before leaving the area, we wanted…