About The Area
The Gers has a long and colourful history that stretches up through the ages from Roman emperors, Eleanor of Aquitaine, the Hundred Years War, pilgrims on the route of Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle, the Gascon musketeers and on up to WW2 Resistance fighters and the SOE.
The Gers is famous for foie gras and armagnac. The whole area is peppered with beautiful old towns, their restaurants, churches, abbeys and chateaux.
The restaurants we have come to love the most are listed below:
La Falène Bleue, – Our favourite restaurant. Often full so you would be well advised to book - 0562 657692. 20 mins from LP
The nearest chateau of interest is Lavardens (13 mins) which has a delicious restaurant (0562 662083) with shaded terrace in the summer and a night market.
Right opposite is an excellent restaurant - Le Halle (www.restaurantlahalle.fr).
Jegun also has an excellent new Vival food store with an interesting cave selling local wines.nts daily. Next to Vival there is a new butcher Boucberie Ben Minjat, Down on the D930 below Jegun, Papote & Grignote, is a family-run boulangerie with for a range of excellent croissants, fresh bread, tartes, pizzas and croques monsieur.
Castéra-Verduzan (10mins) has a spa, a casino and a small Carrefour express that offers an excellent selection of local (and other) wines and last-minute food.
Francie has a new best friend, Didier who runs an extraordinarily rammed Brocante shop as you head out south back to the house.
Children can enjoy the water park La Plage de Verduzan just north of Castéra-Verduzan on D42.
Elsewhere in the area: canoeing, riding, tennis, quad biking, gliding and a star-studded Jazz festival at Marciac in August.
Foodwise, the Gers is famous for its foie gras, armagnac and now increasingly for its wines too. All these are no doubt helped by the absence of heavy industry that affords extraordinarily clear star-scapes at night. There are Brits around and we have some delightful neighbours but the Gers is still comparatively untouched and certainly does not have an English daily newspaper!
It is still unspoilt, rural, old France.