In the early morning hours we took a stroll in downtown Agen to buy the essentials for our forthcoming lunch somewhere in the countryside. – The local dog-doo police was already out cleaning the street.
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| A very commendable French service. |
Later on, we were heading out of town and had a brief rendez-vous with the 'Canal de la Garonne' that we biked along two summers ago.
Soon we were by ourselves in the "périgorgeous" landscape with a big diversity in crops along the roads. One of the more unusual local produce were the fields with tobacco plants galore.
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| Fresh French nicotine delivery for French smokers. |
At an appropriate place with a nice view we stopped and consumed our delicious lunch: Baguette, local cheese, good ham, tomatoes and grapes from the local terroir.
Périgord food is all about 'fat liver' so we had, of course, to stop and visit this "Musée du Foie Gras"
... where all imaginable kinds of varieties and products of canned, pickled and preserved fat livers were on display and for sale.
After a thorough introduction to the process of force feeding the hundreds of happy and hungry ducks in the farm of the museum, we checked our own livers and found that we did have room for some duck foie gras. Hence, we proceeded to taste five different types and bought one glass of a kind mixed with prunes and armagnac. To be consumed at lunch time tomorrow !
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| Left: a normal duck liver. Right: a duck liver after 16 weeks of force feeding. |
We biked alongside huge plantations of plum trees producing the fruits to become prunes. – I assume that constipation is a condition that you would rarely have in this region !
We hurried on to the famous town of Penne d'Agenais beautifully perched on a hill top overlooking the Lot river. Penne is known for its many medieval houses and the old fortress built and inhabited by Richard the Lionheart; – yes, in the old days this part of France was English.
We didn't find any lions but several cats with brave hearts. This particular feline specimen was also very social.
We finally made it to "The Moulin de Madame", our hotel on the river bank in Villeneuve-sur-Lot. Today turned out to become a 55 km day with lots of wind and some rain showers, but with great experiences.
