Saint-Pierre-d'Aubézies , a commune with 59 inhabitants hosted a wonderful party and due to association by approximation, I was invited. It was a pleasure to be there and to meet some new friends. The gentleman named Bob that sat across from me is from Lupiac. He told us that he has stored away a private collection of his grandmother's recipes from the 18th century and invited us for apéros . The recipes are securely protected and guarded for a reason that I could not quite u

My first guests just left. They were a very sweet French couple from Nimes who were visiting to attend a dog show at the Château Le Haget, a nearby camping site/hotel/sometimes restaurent in a gorgrous 17th cenutry château on 12 hectares of beautiful hiking grounds. If all of my future guests are as polite, I will be a very happy camper! :) Even their hunting dog, which I identified as a Saint-Usuge Spaniel who's competing in the show today was polite and he played very nice

Maybe it was 12 or 15 years ago, but in any case it feels like a lifetime ago that I came to the Gers for the first time. I had always been crazy about foie gras, animal husbandry, gardening, French wine and history in remote places so literally rolled the dice on an Internet search and this region appeared. I signed up on WorkAway , a platform for volunteers to find people with a variety of projects that need to be done. The one that came up that spoke to me most was with a

One of the very first things I did when I moved into my home was to I start a garden. It took a bit of investigation and discovery to figure out where to place it, but I found a good location, just behind the back deck outside of the kitchen. This is my first harvest, and indeed I am proud of these little jewels.

I am very proud and thrilled to be given a full page spread in the Cœur Sud-Ouest Tourisme brochure for this summer! We are in store for a very big season that has already started off great with the opening of the new restaurant in Bassoues and the Marciac Jazz Festival in the horizon at the end of July. For me personally, it is the beginning of a very important relationship for opening the Gers up to slow tourism and continuing to keep it both a "Welcoming and Leaving Place

People often wonder and ask: "How did you end up in the Gers from New York City?" It's a bit of an existential question, and I sometimes wonder this myself. But in a nutshell, I have always had a "thing for France." Growing up, I recall seeing a painting of Napoleon at the Philadelphia Art Museum on a white horse bucking up on its hind legs at the battle of Waterloo. I bought the poster, stared at it everyday and he became a personal hero who inspired courage and strength i