Midi Pyrenees

Gascony by Jane Bennett

Picture a region of soft hills, quiet valleys, fields of sunflowers, maize and corn, vineyards, and ochre coloured farms with terracotta roofs. Dotting this pastoral landscape, imagine the remains of military architecture: delightful bastide towns and villages surrounded by stone fortifications, many still intact, with galleried arcades and market squares; tiny castelnaux, (garrison towns) dating from the time of Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Hundred Years War, their centres flower-filled and all kept immaculately...

Then try to imagine, on a clear day, the magnificent Pyrenees to the south forming a distant but dramatic backdrop. 'Bienvenue' to Gascony!

Close to the Spanish border, Atlantic beaches and Pyrenean ski resorts, yet Gascony is unspoilt by modern development, heavy traffic and mass tourism. It's a region offering the best of both worlds, for despite its refreshing 'stood still' feel, it is bordered by excellent road communications, and easy to access by air and rail: there are no less than 4 airports to choose from, and train stations at the capital of Auch, (black dot on map), Toulouse and Agen.

With a temperate climate, offering long, hot, dry summers, and short, cold-to-mild winters, Gascony is the perfect place for the visitor. Here, you're likely to breathe the purest air in Europe. Big skies by night and day, landscapes of beauty and clarity, plus an abundance of wild life, so be sure to bring cameras, sketchbooks, binoculars and telescopes! Traversed by one of the famed pilgrim routes (St Jacques de Compostela) to Spain, the area is popular with hikers - and with cyclists and golfers; gourmets, too, are attracted by the wonderful regional specialities such as duck in many forms, foie gras, Armagnac (the local answer to Cognac), and its growing wine industry, which includes the renowned Madirans. With lakes and rivers for boating, fishing, canoeing and other water sports, festivals, fairs and markets galore, there is something for young and old alike here. You will never be bored ...

But if your vision of the ultimate escape holiday is to flop by a pool with a good book, or to soak in the scenery, essential glass of something in hand, the air silent except for the faint hum of bees, softly whirring cricket or distant tractor perhaps, this too is possible in magical Gascony! Here, you are in Real France...READ MORE

 

Eating in the GERS

Intensely rural, sprinkled with small traditional family farms and overflowing with the good things of the earth, the Gers serves up a hearty cuisine of fresh ingredients, so delicious that eating and drinking are two of the most compelling reasons to visit!

‘C’est le pays du bien vivre et du bon manger’, say the Gascons of their fertile, generous country.  In the face of modern dietary theory, its sticks to its age-old traditions, based on meat and poultry.  The Gers produces much of France’s foie gras, the enlarged liver of either a goose (oie) or duck (canard)...READ MORE 

 

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