The gite’s a-jumping
The gite’s a-jumping
It was inevitable: no sooner had we driven past the signposts to Condom than the guffaws started. My wife, Marina, and my mother giggled like schoolgirls, cracking dire jokes about French letters and Dutch caps, prompting even six-year-old Ferdy to join in. ‘Something for the weekend, sir?’ he chirruped from the back seat, silencing us all. It was going to be a long day.
I fell in love with Gascony earlier this year while researching the delights of Armagnac and had vowed to return en famille for our summer hols. Marina, loath to be done out of her fortnight on the beach, had taken some persuading. She was unmoved by the prospect of a gite with pool, set in unspoilt country dotted with mediaeval villages, forests and vineyards. Nor was she swayed by the promise of unlimited foie gras, magret de canard and confit (she has a thing about duck), fine wine and bucketloads of Armagnac.
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