Gers

The department to the west of Toulouse is Gers, a region of gently rolling hills covered in a patchwork of bright yellow sunflower and colza crops, interspersed with fields of corn and grain. It is famed for its foie gras, wild mushrooms, duck and its Armagnac brandy. This agricultural patrimony would seem to be evidenced in each town and village by a central covered market. These structures range from simple and pragmatic to utterly magnificent. I find their pure, rustic engineering quite fascinating.

This area is said to be the least populated in all of Western Europe but coincidentally, it has the highest concentration of chateaus in France. We spent the day meandering from village to village, marvelling at medieval half timbered houses, windmills and chateaus large and small. It was all very "French".

We had the good fortune to arrive in the small village of Cologne and to be greeted with a gathering of diverse classic cars with people in period costume.

It tickled us to note that one of the major towns of this department is Condom and that the surrounding countryside is replete with “bastides”, medieval fortified new towns peculiar to the south west region of France.

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