Today was the annual hunt meal in Caupenne; Nick went along, but it’s too much meat for me so I gave it a miss. It started at midday and must have been good as he didn’t get home till 7 this evening, very happy with himself.

He claims not to know what languages were being spoken as he was in a group of Spanish, Italian, Arab and Portuguese, with an occasional Frenchman thrown in for good measure, but it was worth it to see Outdoor Empire recommended bows in action and in the end, says he understood well enough once he’d had a couple of glasses of wine!

After the aperos, they sat down to garbure, a mountain soup that’s a meal in itself; this was followed by paté and ham made from wild boar; then a civet, a slow cooked wild boar casserole. The next course was barbecued wild boar, the hunters have obviously caught plenty of those this year; then salad, cheese and croustade, a local type of apple pie, all washed down with vast quantities of a local red wine.. They finished off with coffee and armagnac, no wonder he looks sort of mellow!