From darkness into light

The De Ferme en Ferme farm trail idea has existed for years in the Val de Dagne and the Montagne Noire. Today was the first to be held in the area around Narbonne, and they didn't seem to have taken advantage of advice from the organisers of the other two long-established events.

We set out a bit late, and eventually gave up looking for the first farm on our list, thanks to a vague map on the leaflet, no specifics about where it was, and a lamentable absence of signs. While looking for it, we did accidentally go to the sheep farm above. It wasn't very charming as it was set in a large featureless plain with the wind howling across it.

We decided we'd better get to the place we'd selected for lunch, a fruit farm run by a British family who also keep pigs; they were advertising a pig roast. We had a few problems finding this, for the same reasons, but a man at a snail farm eventually gave S some instructions. These led us to an old double-decker bus repurposed as a fruit and veg stall on an industrial estate -- not exactly the charm we were seeking. But we parked the car and walked 500 metres up a track to the farmhouse. Outside the adjoining barn, there was a massive queue of people and the tables in the barn were already full. We wondered how many pigs they had roasted, but the owner came and did a count of the queue and assured us that we should be lucky enough to get fed.

And we were; after queuing for 45 minutes we got the last few scraps of pork, served with roast potatoes and a small spoonful of aubergine and tomato gratin, which we polished off in about five minutes. It was OK but not really worth the wait! We felt obliged to go and inspect the four rather small pigs hanging out behind the house. The farmer told us he just kept pigs because he could feed them on any fallen or leftover fruit, which seems like quite a good system.

On the way home we stopped at a goat farm, easy to find because it's not far from home. They'd been doing lunch for hordes of people too, under a marquee which was shrieking and flapping with the force of the wind, so much so that I felt uncomfortable standing in it and certainly wouldn't have wanted to eat lunch there. We had a quick guided tour of the goat barn -- the goats are nearly all white ones "because they're easier to see in the garrigue" -- bought some cheese, and decided we'd done enough and could go home.

At least we only had a bit of wind to cope with -- I'm really feeling for all those in the path of Hurricane Irma.