Meandering With Murphy

Monday, April 15th. I was going to start on a lighter note but this evening there was a fire at Notre Dame Cathedral that destroyed the spire, roof and other parts of the cathedral. We were having dinner with Megan and Julien’s friends Francois and his wife Amelie who also live in Auros. They were all extremely shocked and saddened. It is a symbol of France. I am sad for Parisians, the French people, people who have visited Notre Dame and for those who have not and who will not be able to experience her full beauty.

Today Scott and I decided to visit a few of the small villages. We picked Condom. (Pronounced Condone) For those of you who are laughing that of course we selected this village. Well we went there to see statues of the Four Musketeers. Yes, there are four: Porthos, D’Artagnan, Aramis and Athos. They reason they are celebrated here is that D’Artagnan lived in this area and is one of the most important and historical personalities.

The major focal point of the town is the Saint-Pierre Cathedral. The cathedral was started around 1504. It is one of the cathedrals on the Routes of Santiago de Compostela. It is beautiful inside and it also has a cloister.

Some of the sites we saw around the town. Below: 1. The vaulted medieval street (covered passageway), 2. The tower (13th century) which is the oldest part of the former detention center which was build between 1837 and 1848. It was used until 1936. 3. Scott walking the streets of Condom, 4. The entrance to the Old Bishop’s Palace (Subprefeture) started in 1693. It wasn’t finished until a century later during the Revolution.

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After lunch we drove about 15 minutes to Larressingle, an old fortified village that got its name from a Roman commander. It is a 13th century village which had about thirty dwellings housing about 250 people. There is a moat, church, courtyard inside, and other buildings where people lived.

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Outside the walls of the fortified village was a cemetery. It had the most unusual grave stones that I have ever seen. Multiple bodies buried in one spot but the most unusual thing was that on top of the graves were pictures and plaques of the people buried there.

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We headed back because we had a Sauternes tasting scheduled for later in the afternoon. Neither Scott nor I particularly like sweet wines but we decided to try them and we were very happy we did. Julien and Megan’s friends Francois and his wife Amelie were staying for dinner and also going to the tasting. The owner of the vineyard, Herve Duberdieu, met us along with his oldest son Andre. Herve talked about how his family has been growing Sauternes grapes for six generations. He told us that Sauternes is made from Sauvignon blanc and Muscadelle grapes that have been affected by Botrytis cinerea (noble rot) which causes the grapes to become partially raisined concentrating the distinctive flavor. We learned that he lived in Minnesota when he was younger and worked for Jack Farrell of Haskell’s in Minneapolis. When he was working he met Kermit Lynch a wine importer. His wines are imported all over the US through Kermit Lynch and we have seen this on many wine labels which we have purchased.

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Then we went into the tasting room and discovered the most surprising thing of all. We actually have several bottles not of his Sauternes but his Chateau Graville-Lacoste Graves. We love this wine!!! Herve got quite a laugh about this and Scott and I enjoyed this coincidence as well. What a very, very small world.

We tasted the Graves as well as the Sauternes. It was actually very good. He showed us two large format bottles and a 1953 Sauternes that his father had bottled. They only have ten left and open them only on very special celebrations.

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Julien took us to a large corporate owned chateau. Julien said that this is corporately owned because of inheritance tax, the families could not afford the vineyards any longer. This is similar to what happens in farming in the US. The corporation owns many vineyards and produce wines that start in the $100s. They hold events and weddings in the chateau. It was an amazing place.

We went back and enjoyed an amazing dinner. While we were gone, Megan prepared a wonderful fresh bruschetta and meats and olives. Julien and Francois shucked oysters from Archeshone for our dinner. Julien made us duck (amazing) and an herb sausage. We learned you put butter on the bread and then put an oyster on it and enjoy! We had a tarte tatin which Julien made earlier in the day and then warmed, put sauce on and it was served with ice cream. Yum!