St. Lizier


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Europe » France » Midi-Pyrénées
October 24th 2007
Published: October 24th 2007
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Lunch at St. LizierLunch at St. LizierLunch at St. Lizier

Sharing a meal in the marquee overlooking the Pyrenees
It’s not really been possible to stay in touch, because we won’t have internet access till Thursday, so this is in Word and will be transferred. We HAVE been to the only net access in the area, at the Foyer des Jeunes in Lavelanet. Hadn’t thought it through though. French keyboards. Not qwertyuiop. What this means is that every time you type what should be an ‘a’, a ‘q’ pops up. And so on. Simple messages get reduced to short phrases in pidgin, and only essential matters are attended to. Other highlights in Lavelanet included reporting the loss of Mal’s driving license at the Gendarmerie, which ended up as a discussion about the likelihood of France beating the British or not at the rugby. And you know how convincing we both are as conversationalists about sport.

Other than that, we’ve been very healthy. Every single day has seen us do at least an 8 km walk. That may not sound much, but when it includes a demanding hike up some Pyrenean scarp, it’s quite a challenge. Though a very beautiful one. The landscape varies from English-style woodland, to gently rolling countryside, to craggy gorges and snow capped (already) peaks, and we’ve relished the time exploring in summery weather, when skimpy vest tops and shorts have been more appropriate than anoraks and cord trousers.

Best day so far has been Sunday, spent at the Bio fair at St. Lizier, an annual organic fair which attracts every organic producer, it seems, from the whole of the Ariege. Saint Lizier itself is a gorgeously picturesque medieval hill town dominated by the church and Bishop’s palace. There were avenues of stalls offering freshly pressed apple juices, organic wines, piles of extraordinary pumpkins, bright green chard and salads, organic wines, ass’s milk soap, organic cottons and locally worked leather goods…and endless people watching.

We’ll draw a veil over the time when we needed to offload some of the things we’d bought into the car. Mal had his own ideas about how to get back there which I didn’t share, and so I went back by myself and waited a mere 50 minutes while he circled the fair again and again, unable to work out how to locate the place we’d left the car……

Lunch was worth waiting for. The food wasn’t so great (think Worthy 1970s Vegetarian Bistro, with lots of lentils) but the setting was. We were in a marquee without walls that had us looking over towards the distant Pyrenees, already dusted with snow towards the peaks, across bright green fields and forest…and glorious sunshine.


Just spotted a half page advert in the paper, reminding the good people of the Ariege that nobody is permitted to gather more than 3 kilos of mushrooms per day on public land on pain of a 1525 Euro fine. They should be so lucky. I’ve found a handful of field mushrooms and 2 shaggy inkcaps so far…..


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29th October 2007

skimpy tops, eh?
Have you got any pics of "sexy legs" Malc in his skimpy vest top and shorts? This we've GOT to see :o) xxx

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