Jeannine & Roger's French Cheese Odyssey

Castelnau-Barbarens - 15th June

We are currently staying near the old city of Auch which has a lower and upper level. Sadly, unlike Pau, there is no funicular so it’s almost always uphill to see the historic attractions.

We set off on foot to discover the history of Auch by geocaches; the first one being the Church of St Orens. There was a painting on the wall about cachers, I took that as a positive sign for the day that there will be many finds.

The second discovery was the Maison Fedel, a 15th century medieval house now used as the tourism office.

The third and fourth discoveries were the Carmelite convent, now a library and one of the original gates into the city. Not worthy of a photo, however discovery five was far more interesting.

The Monumental stairway of 370 steps, built in 1673, is worthy of a few photos. At the top of the stairs is a statue of the city’s most famous son, Charles de Batz, Count of Artagnan, officer of the musketeers of Louis XIV and hero of the famous novel 'The Three Musketeers'.
D’Artagnan himself is in the header photo and below are some views of the steps and the Tower of Armagnac.

Discovery six is the Sainte Marie church which has 21 individual chapels inside. We didn’t have time for a detailed tour as the lovely curator was closing for lunch; she spoke nice English and gave us five minutes. The outside is just as impressive, and so it should be; they spent 200 years constructing it!

Discoveries seven to nine were the Palace and Prefecture, the Tower of Cesar and the Blue Penitents and the Jacobin Museum, no exciting photos to share. However back to getting from the lower level to the upper level of the old town, the only way was stairs or what the French called ‘Pousterie’; they are very steep stairs in the alley ways of old buildings. The photos probably don’t show the steepness or how far down they go, but take my word they were steep.

Cheese Experience No.55 - Lunch with a splattering of cheese We walked passed this café while geocaching and saw people eating these amazing dishes so stopped for our weekly lavish lunch. I had the Salmon salad which included feta cheese, French style, which is low in salt. Roger had the smoked duck which included emmental cheese.

After our mid day siesta (whoops we should have stopped those, now we are not near Spain) we went to three villages to do more geocaching.

Pessan had a lovely old church with a secret garden and 50 day-care children looking on. The clock was only 2 hours out, but the swarm of bees nearby didn’t care nor the workmen trying to tidy the garden for a fete.

Marsan had a chateau and church worth a visit apparently, however the entrance we went to was closed and we discounted walking through the farmer’s barn.

Castelnau-Barbarens was our favourite of the villages. It was built on a hill and had lots of well maintained old buildings and pretty gardens. We arrived at the tourism office (with free English books) and the church to do the geocache just as the men were stringing up the lights for the village fete. You can see the Pyrenees from here, which might be a safe distance from the weather patterns they cause.