Last Round of Golf

Last Monday I decided to try the other golf course in Pau called Blue Green Artiguelouve.

It's quite a new club and the clubhouse isn't charming like Pau Golf Club's one but the course made up for this.









The course is 5839m from the back tees (in France the back tees are white) and it is a very flat course with numerous doglegs. It is also very scenic as there is a great view of the Pyrenees from most of the holes.









I joined a group of three gentleman (Philippe, Patrice and Jean) who must have been in their 50s and they all played off single digits.

The fairways are quite wide so there are plenty of opportunities to unleash the beast unlike in Pau Golf Club, where the fairways can be very narrow.



I played quite well and I parred all the Par 3s.



One of the strange things about playing golf in France is that the only distance marker for each hole is 135m from the green. They don't have the normal 200m, 150m and 100m markers!

View of the Pyrenees

The gentlemen with whom I played had an interesting tradition of having a shot of Armagnac whenever anyone on the flight got a birdie. Fortunately, there were three birdies but none were mine!

The course was in very good condition, albeit slightly soggy as it had been raining for the previous few days and the greens were surprisingly zippy.

I nearly birdied the last as my putt lipped out and it was nice way to cap off a perfect day of golf.

The Cabidos Team

Since the vineyard is only 8 hectares, the team at Cabidos is very small.

In fact, there are only two full-time staff- Meo and Bernard.

Meo is the winemaker and she does all the pruning and assembling of the wine.

Bernard, Meo and Marie-Claire

Bernard's job is to do all the other manual work.

Marie-Claire is a part time worker who does 4 half days a week as she runs her own duck farm.

Both Marie-Claire and Bernard have very strong local accents and it took some time for me to get used to it. For example, instead of pronouncing 'pain' as pah, they pronounce it pehng!

Last Day of Work

My last day of work was on Friday and Meo had organised a little grillade for lunch.

I was counting on there being good weather but it was pissing down with rain!

We used old vine cuttings to make a fire and the effectiveness of these vines surprised me. Within a minute of kindling a small flame, a large fire could be produced which only took 5 minutes to reach the right temperature for grilling.

Meo had brought some steaksand salad for us and I brought some local cheese (made from ewe's milk) and bread and a bottle of wine.

The food was delicious and it was a memorable last day of work

Sunday

One of the advantages of living in Bouillon is that it's only one and half hours from both the Basque coast and the Pyrenees.

We decided to go to the coast and spend some time in Saint Jean de Luz, a small fishing port, which has now become a popular resort.

I was told it's the equivalent of the Cote d' Azur without the 'bling'!

The architecture is very distinctive due to the white-walled Basque style buildings which dominate the town.

We arrived at lunchtime and we went to a restaurant near the main square in the picture above.
Not surprisingly, most of the restaurants there specialise in seafood. This was a pleasant change from the duck-laden cuisine I have been accustomed to!

To start with I had piquillos (peppers) stuffed with salt cod.
The saltiness of the cod and the sweetness of the peppers complemented each other perfectly.

Next came pan-fried lemon sole. This was very-well cooked and I could tell that the fish was fresh from the fishing boats outside.

After lunch we went down to the beach to check out the view. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't great and it was windy and cloudy with hardly any sunlight. Nevertheless, the view was impressive and I could imagine how busy and fine the place would be in the height of summer.

We then proceeded to walk around the town. There seemed to be endless clothes shops and seafood restaurants but it was relatively quiet.

However, in the center of the town, there is a beautiful church, where Louis XIV was married.
The intricate carvings on the wall were very impressive
It started to rain just as we left and we had a quick drive around Biarritz before heading back to Bouillon.

THE CAR IS NOW FIXED!!!!!

The title says it all...

Saturday

I managed to get my golf-fix on Saturday and I played at Pau Golf Club again.
Unfortunately, only 11 holes were open due to the damage from the storms.

However, the weather could only be describer as perfect; the sun was shining and it was cool due to a light breeze.

So, I played 11 holes alone as nobody else had booked to play the same time as me. Moreover, there were four-balls in front and behind me.

I actually played pretty well and the course was in good condition apart from some soggy patches but that was to be expected considering the magnitude of the storms.


By the time I had finished playing, it was time for lunch.
I decided to try the club's restaurant and there was a 2 course deal with coffee or tea for 12 euros. Although you could have 4-courses for the same price at le Cafe des Sports, I thought it would be nice to try the club's food (to compare it with RSGC!) and, since it was a perfect day, to lunch on the terrace.

I had an excellent bowl of potage to start with and then some aiguillettes de confit de canard (strips of duck confit) with salad and french fries. The portion of confit was extremely generous and it was very tender and the chips were delicious as I suspect they were fried in duck fat.

A very satisfying meal indeed.

A Minor Incident (Accident)

Just when I laud the driving experience here in France, this happened on Thursday:


I was approaching a corner when the sunlight blinded me momentarily and I lost control.
I clipped the corner of a ditch on the right and turned to the other side of the road where I skidded and found myself in the middle of a corn field. There's a bit of drop into the field so I received quite a shock from the impact.

It may seem ridiculous that a ray of sunlight could cause this to happen but I could not see anything at all for a moment and was extremely disorientated.

Luckily, the farmer and his family came out to help me and he kindly towed the car to his farm.
The wife of the mayor of Bouillon, who happens to be the Constants' neighbour and a cousin of the farmer, also appeared at the site by chance and she stayed with me and the farmer until Minette came to fetch me.

I was completely fine, although a bit shaken and with a slightly sore back due to whiplash, and the car wasn't too badly damaged. As you can see the front bumper as well as the front-right mudguard are damaged There is a problem with the radiator as it has come loose.

The car has been taken to a garage and we're waiting to hear from the mechanic.

According to the farmer, exactly the same incident (driver blinded by the sun and loses control) happened two weeks ago and that many people have crashed into his field before.
He also said that I wouldn't be the last person to do so.