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 understand but...

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 nicely with Modjeska....

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 family who moved...