Day 33 - Eauze - Nagoro - 3 June

Time Departed: 7.45am

Time Arrived: 2.20pm

Distance: 25kms 

Cumulative Distance: 568kms

Percentage Completed: 73% (937,800 steps) 

Weather: Sunny and warm, humid

Accommodation: Chambre D’Hote L’Arbladoise 

Feelings: Neil - Contented, Henk - A bit tired,  Di - Fair

As we had a longer walk we had an earlier breakfast at seven o’clock. Henk was a little tired after chasing mosquitoes during the night. This was our earliest start of the entire walk but we wanted to do a fair amount of it in the cooler morning and before rain was predicted at three o’clock. It was an easy walk for most of the day and much of it was covered in cool woods. Once again we also walked alongside grapevines, wheat and corn. We are in the heart of the Armagnac region hence all the grapevines. The mud is slowing drying up.

Way in the distance we saw the Pyrenees Mountains and became very excited. They were still snow-capped which was very different from when we climbed them four years ago in September. We will be there in ten days time. 

We have often remarked that whilst we are eating a lot of duck in dishes such as Confit of Duck or Duck Cassoulet we haven’t seen any duck farming. Today not long after Eauze we came across the epicentre of free-range duck farming. There were ducks everywhere.

We made very good time and decided to have morning tea at the ten kilometre mark at the little town of Manciet at ten thirty. At the top end of the town as we entered was a sport bar/cafe and as  it didn’t look too enticing we thought we would find something further along the main street. Unfortunately, on a Sunday morning in Manciet there was nothing further open so we resorted to having our break at a picnic table in a lovely park eating our pastries from Eauze’s boloungerie. 

At midday we reached the Greenwich Meridian so we were directly south of Greenwich. A sign marked the place and there was a house in the distance which seemed to sit directly on the meridian.

We are in a major wine making area and whilst walking into Nogaro we passed a very big wine distillery.

We had lunch at one o’clock at Nogaro alongside the eleventh century Church of St Nicholas. We took our time as we only had three more kilometres to reach our accommodation. The church has the remains of a cloister which were beautifully carved. 

Our accommodation is a combination of a B&B and a Gite. It is in a beautiful setting with lovely gardens. The house was originally built in the 16th century with medieval exposed beams inside. We caught up with some washing and used the Gite’s clothes lines to get it dry. There were twelve for dinner with French, Dutch, German and we Australians around the table. The Dutch couple spoke fluent French and German so that made it very easy. It was a great night.