To market to market

To market to market to buy a fat pig (sausage!)

We all sleep well in our new bode. The building is a refurbished 400 year old barn with huge warn square ceiling beams and three foot thick walls. The floor beds (and the beds) squeak but even without any significant windows (they let in the heat!) it is a comfortable and friendly place. The internet ne march pas which is a real bastard as the only way we can obtain signal is to stand at the front gate with our various devices.

Apologies as well in that the template I initially chose for the blog is totally unreadable. This, hopefully, has now been rectified!!

So we are marketing today. Each village/ township has a weekly market. After the disappointing St Emilion market today we are heading to Castillon de Bataille, a town of the 100 years war on the banks of the Dordogne. Wow, what a market; fresh produce everywhere. We peruse the butchers, fighting off elderly French ladies for the last two Toulouse sausages (actually there was a whole new large plate of these out the back) Plan for dinner tonight is for BBQ on the back wall (not a deck, just a wall) so we purchases a range of lovely fresh sausage, get some crunchy yummy apples, get given a fresh lettuce (was the end of the day) but a baguette or two and feel very pleased with ourselves.

Off for a tiki tour up the Dordogne startling the locals by putting out the picnic rug on the banks of the slowly flowing Dordogne for a lunch time repast of cheese, bread and foie gras. More centimetres on the waistline!

Next stop was St Foy-la-grande, the next biggest town to Castillon. St Foy is a little scruffier than we would like with many derelict shops. It is the witching hours between 1230-1500 when everyone is back at home doing something with someone so the streets are barren and empty. There are some interesting half wooden medieval houses on the streets but not much else to see.

Eventually we wind our way back home to sit in the sun and gaze over the tree tops in the valley below. Helen, the proprietor of our establishment, is taking us for a wine tour and tasting this afternoon. We spend a very pleasant hour or so walking the vineyard and learning the weird French regulations around land ownership etc. When a property comes up for sale, the locals get first refusal. The further away you live, the lower down the pecking order you go. Helen regaled us with her three courses of seeking permission to plant new vines!! And you think our bureaucracy is bad!!!

The Chateau makes an unusual Malbec dominant red, along with a traditional Bordeaux blend, a Rose and a Sauvignon Blanc. We taste a number of the reds with the 2005 being very pleasant. We tour the wine making facility which is interestingly pristinely clean in an old barn, with stainless steel fermenters and an obvious absence of oak.

Parting after a fine sampling, we adjourn to the back wall for a cook up of fine French sausage washed down with a bottle of chez nous at the chateau!