The day started off cold & bright with a climb up to Pimbo, where I was hopping to get at least a bit of bread. Unfortunately I had to struggle all the way to the town(?) of Arzacq-Arraziquet (somebody must have been smoking good stuff to come up with that name) to find an old Times & The Sports Inn where a great PDJ was served for 4 Euros.

I then had a delightful little walk to Urzan, going through some pleasant rolling hill type countryside. I had been badgering Joy to tell me if my two pictures had been accepted for the Farnham Art Society spring   exhibition. Just after she put the phone down the letter arrived, so she sent an SMS text . At the time I was standing on the crest of a hill looking over to the long distance (view on top of my paintings above), plugged into my MP3 player listening to 'Trumpets will sound' by Handel. (Unusual for me, as most of my tunes are classic rock)
 >>> It must go down as one of the great moments of the trip.

At lunch time I sat in the porch of the church at Fichous- Riumayou, apart from having a couple of impressive paintings inside the church, the place would not have captured your interest as there was only about 30 odd dwellings in the whole area, yet the plaque for the first world war listed 13 of it's sons killed, what a heavy burden for a hamlet of this size. It also had the effect of bringing me down to earth and putting my little 'win' into perspective.

Jean Michel had recommended Nick and Tina Smith to me as a good place to stay ... and it was. They had moved to Urzan a couple of years ago and set up Maison Lacabanne. I felt sorry for Tina as in French eyes the English do not have a great reputation for cooking  and most of their guests are French, but she turned up trumps with her evening meal.... probably running a very close second to 'Madam' from Ferme Bohotegua. (If it was not for the caramelised apples of 'Madam', it would have been joint first)

Anyway it was nice to have a conversation and hang my washing in fresh air. I forgot to tell Tina that she might like her guests to enjoy fluffy towels, but to a 'grim they are fantastic places to dry your socks (not that I needed to on this occasion.)