We spent a relaxed morning hanging about Cazaubon, doing laundry at the local Intermarché supermarket, which has coin-op washing machines right in the parking lot, so everyone in town can evaluate the condition of your underwear. (To get change I had to make some purchases, and discovered that, at Intermarché anyway, beer is cheaper than bottled water in France.)
While our clothes finished drying in our room because we ran out of things to buy at Intermarché to get change for the dryer, we went out to drive around the vicinity, eat lunch, and stop at an Armagnac distillery, the magnificently-named Domaine de Guilhon d'Aze. They let us taste several different products, and we wound up buying a bottle of wine, a bottle of Floc, and a package of three small bottles of Armagnac. Total cost: 25 Euros. From which I conclude that the markup on wine as it crosses the Atlantic is crazy.
What is Floc, you ask? Floc is the signature aperitif of the Armagnac region: it's Armagnac brandy combined with fresh-pressed unfermented grape juice at a roughly 1:4 ratio, so it's as strong as wine but with a sweet, brandy-like flavor. I liked it so much I bought a bottle, and when that's used up I'll have to figure out a way to get some more.
After that modest buying spree we went back to the hotel to rest and tidy up before driving off to Eugenie-les-Bains, a spa town off to the southwest of us near Aire-sur-l'Adour. Eugenie-les-Bains is the home of the legendary restaurant Les Prés d'Eugénie, run by the legendary chef Michel Guérard. We had a reservation made weeks earlier by the power of the Internet; since we arrived a little early we amused ourselves by wandering about the gardens until it was time to go in and have a drink before dinner.
We both ordered the "Terroir Sublime" menu, which is based on traditional Gascon dishes and local ingredients. To begin, I had a soup of crawfish with a sort of tomato mousse, while Diane had what amounted to a giant wonton filled with morels and other wild mushrooms. This was accompanied by a white Chateau de Bachen wine from nearby (the Tursan region).
For my main course I had a sort of terrine of pork trotters and shrimp, served on paper-thin slices of fried bread with an eel salad accompaniment. Diane got a little duck and pigeon pie. Both were superb. The wine with this course was called Barocco, and was the softest red wine I've ever drunk.
Dessert for Diane was strawberries Melba with ice cream and dabs of herb sorbet. Mine was a whole peach poached in (I think) raspberry sauce, with verbena ice cream. We finished up with coffee and tea in the restaurant's lounge, under the quizzical gaze of a portrait of Napoleon III.
Feeling very satisified, we drove back through the darkened countryside and were in bed by midnight.
You're getting the best of France. Great!
Posted by: Gregory Benford | 07/18/2016 at 05:49 PM