Mas d'Azil and Villasavary

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Another incident packed weekend. Saturday: Fête de la Figue. We went all the way to Mas d’Azil for this, partly because it’s a very pretty journey further west into the Pyrenees, and partly because I reckoned that a fig festival might give me some ideas about dealing with the wretched things. It’s hard to admit this to an English audience paying 40p a throw in Sainsbury’s, but we’re overburdened. If I drop one whilst harvesting them in the potager, I’ve got round to letting it lie there because it’s too much trouble to pick it up. I bully neighbours into taking them - most won’t, because they have gluts of their own to deal with. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that we had an excellent day, but picked up no recipes. There were appetising food stalls, craft stalls, country dancers, but after a couple of hours, we decided to move on

Not far from town was the first surprise: a country church, Raynaude, with apparently, a graveyard with lots of mini-chapels on the hillside behind. We had to investigate. It turned out that what we’d spotted were the Stations of the Cross, and walking the entire route upwards provided a pretty tough challenge, rewarded by wonderful views from the top of the local hillsides and tantalising glimpses of the Pyrenees beyond, newly covered with snow.

We decided to return home via some of the cols - passes - through the lower parts of the Pyrenees. We hadn’t gone far before we were stopped in the road by a large 4x4 with a placard: ‘Transhumance’ - and we had to let a long line of cattle straggle through on their way down to the valley. So they don’t ALL go in lorries then.

And then the cols themselves: I’ll let the photos tell the story.

Then today: Our walking group split into two today - those who wanted to went shinning up a mountain somewhere. Those of a lazier disposition joined with lots of other groups in the area to participate in a walk organised by a group in Villasavary, not far away in the Aude. When we got there, Malcolm and I were horrified to discover there were 400 walkers…….If we hadn’t had a lift there, I think we’d have turned round and fled. It DOES sound awful. But it wasn’t. People broke down into groups, and the huge numbers just weren’t apparent. It was fun to talk to people from other parts of the region too. A dullish but pleasant first part of the walk gave way to scrubby, gorsy ‘garrigue’ - again with distant snowy views.

And then, back at Villasavary, 15km later, there were the Mayor and Important Worthies offering us all the all-important ‘apero’. Marquees had been set up in the town square, and soon all 400 of us were sitting down to salad followed by cassoulet (don’t ask), bread, wine, cheese, apple tart and egg custard. The proceedings became ever more raucous, with an accordion player and singer encouraging us all to sing along, cheer, clap, stamp, and generally give voice to our excellent mood. There was dancing in the streets before very good humoured groups of people drifted off in the afternoon sun back to wherever they’d come from, having replaced every calorie they’d ever lost during the morning walk over the two hours of eating and drinking.

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Photos

Market in full swing
We had fun tasting....and buying wine

The church at Raynaude with the Stations of the Cross
...straggling up the hillside

A handy refuge....
...with a huge fireplace, obviously used, and used often, by travellers caught in the winter's snow

The morning walk almost over.
Returning to Villasavary

Meal over, so......
.....dancing on the table

Wending our way home....
....through the streets of Villasavary

And finally......
....sunset over Laroque