Another hour.......

Don't know why you humans mess with time !

A treat for the weekend

Now as I was saying in my last blog with all those swords pointed at me I was getting a bit concerned I could end up as a kebab!  Mentioned it to the Guv and I got even more concerned as he took me to a human eating place where they were cooking!  Of course I need not have worried it was just time for my people to have lunch, not a bad place either but I just got the usual bowl of water.

After my people had ate here it was off to have a look around the town and the church.

I thought I should give thanks for my life and being saved from the streets by the Guv and the Missus (if you do not know my history go the very beginning pages of my blog to read about it). I also prayed for all my Greek canine friends left on the streets, mistreated and hungry.

Now if you have not worked out where this is it is the city of Condom.  Known in history for the protection it offered pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela and was made famous in the French film "Happiness in the Field". I wonder if that has anything to do with the cities name?

Do you know where I am ?

D'Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, Porthos and ME !
However I'm not too sure if the saying  "all for one and one for all" is quite correct.  

This could be "all for one and all for me!" , either they are going to knight me or make me a kebab!

Take cover !!!!

Now this place scared the heck out of me.  I was siting nice and quiet in my best pose for the Guv to take my photo and the air raid sirens went off!  (see the bottom photo).  I think I'd much rather the sirens from homeland, at least they only frightened the sailors.

The town of Fleurance is yet another French town that dates way back even before the Guv was born. In the 15 century it became famous for its fabric factory making serge. Now it is known for having the largest astronomy festival in France each August.

...and the next place

So my next stop was the village of Lavardens. This was the former military capital of the Counts of Armagnac and you can see why with the castle overlooking the small village below.  Guarding the people below, 

just like I guard my people!

Home from home

Well my people really felt at home here and had their morning coffee in this place run by a guy from Wales! (You'd never guess that would you?). The village of Valance-sur-Blaise was founded in 1274 and the church below is 16th century.

The village has three wells, and it is these wells that helped the villages with stand sieges over the centuries. 

It also has a town port and you can take boat trips here to Condom. Think I'll stick to the poppymobile though as you know I don't like water.

All for one and one for all....

I could not get to the computer to blog yesterday as the Guv seemed to be about all day!  So I'm a day late in telling you about the famous person who was born there.  Charles de Batz de Castelmore, Captain Lieutenant of the Musketeers of Louis XIV better known as d'Artagnan. 

The real d'Artagnan's life was used as the basis for Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras' novel Les mémoires de M. d'Artagnan. Alexandre Dumas in turn used Sandras' novel as the main source for his d'Artagnan Romances (The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte de Bragelonne), which cover d'Artagnan's career from his humble beginnings in Gascony to his death at Maastricht. Although Dumas knew that Sandras's version was heavily fictionalised, in the preface to The Three Musketeers he affected to believe that the memoirs were real, in order to make his novel more believable.

Castle of d'Artagnan

Not busy now....

So back to my travels. The next village we went to was Lupiac founded in 1090 and is the oldest castelneux in Gascony. The Guv said at the beginning of the 20th century this place was a busy city, but now only 300 people live here. Tomorrow I'll tell you about one very famous person that was born here....

That's a long time...

The Guv told me this morning he and the Missus have been married this day 41 years ago!
Wow my Gt Gt Gt Grandfather was alive then....

Still Happy Anniversary to the Guv & the Missus

Quite "Plaisance"

Another place I can not say much about other than it was very "Plaisance". A big town square that I had a walk around, but even the Guv and Missus did not stop for coffee!

Not much here....

Not a lot to tell you about this town (Marciac) apart from it had a very large centre square with loads of room for the "poppymobile" to park.  

So I just had a walk around to stretch my four legs

Tillac toilets

We came across this village a bit by accident, as it looked rather interesting the Guv decided to stop.  Tillac was originally built around a castle in the 13th century, but the castle has long since gone. A fortified village protected by two towers at either end, the Rabasten Tower and the Mirande Tower.

Never mind the towers just look at all those doggy toilet posts they built for male canines

.....now where's the female one ?