Welcome to the French village you've always dreamed of living in
The feeling of feeling that you come home for christmas ; that the table will be set with care for you; that the conversation will be endearing and the wine, excellent; that the bed will be soft and, when you sink your head into the pillow, you will smell the sweet perfume of home.
This is what it's like to stay in The Fishes , a delightful villa in the south of France that is exactly like the one you've seen in the movies, like the one you've always dreamed of. With the stone façade and the blue shutters, with the ivy licking the centuries-old walls. Surrounded by a fresh and exuberant garden, with the perfect corner to read, with the apple tree waiting for you to reach out and bite a fruit.
At breakfast, served under the gigantic trees in summer, you can enjoy a flirty table worthy of a countess , with delicate crockery, freshly cut flowers and products from the town: fig, strawberry and peach jam. Walnuts and plums. Eggs from the hens that run around carefree, freshly baked cake.
Everything is imbued with the enchanting spirit of Brigitte , the owner of this Bed&Breakfast located in the middle of the countryside, just a few minutes from the village of Palaminy . She ensures that everything is ready with the tenderness of a mother and that very French taste for everything beautiful.
Every night she prepares four course dinner for guests of her trio of cozy and spacious rooms, as she has been doing for the past 30 years. She cooks tasty recipes that she considers simple, almost always, typical of the area's tradition: soufflés, quiches, clafoutis with seasonal fruits, duck confit, and even the famous Toulouse sausage, yes, served with beans from Tarbes del yard.
Everything is always prepared with organic and local products : the chicken is bought from a neighbor who raises them in freedom; the tomato is from her garden; the zucchini, from her best friend's. The veal, from her trusted butcher, who only sells local beef.
Brigitte will ask you if you prefer to have dinner with her and her husband Bruno -and the possible guests that night- or at your own table. choose to share and soon you will be talking to a Belgian couple in search of their own refuge in the countryside in that part of France, with a Lebanese son who reels off the best recipes in the Arab cookbook and, above all, with Brigitte and Bruno themselves, so affable , such amazing hosts.
While you chat, between the appetizers, the main course, the obligatory and delicious local fromages and the dessert, you will be served, without pompousness, the sweetest champagne and the best wine in the region. Thus, the conversation will flow so easily that soon you will not realize that, in reality, you thought you couldn't speak english or french . And, when you go to bed, you will think why so much individualism, so much digitization, if the trip was this: sharing bread and laughter with those who until then were strangers, looking into each other's eyes, toasting.
WHAT TO DO IN THE AREA?
Les Pesques is located in Haute-Garonne , the area that we find just after crossing the northern border of our country. Everything we expect from a getaway in France awaits us there: beautiful natural spaces, perfectly preserved villages, fairytale castles, beautiful mansions... We leave you a complete route, with several family plans, to enjoy in this unforgettable area of the Pyrenees .
In it, you will find many of the stops that Brigitte will suggest you do, such as the nearby town of Martres Toulouse , which has a nice museum, a church and many ceramic crafts. The hostess also recommends a walk through the medieval town of Rieux Volvestre , visit Le Village Gaulois, a magnificent recreation of a Gallic village, appreciate the imposing basilica of Saint Bertrand de Comminges and the Romanesque church of St Just de Valcabrère (towards the Pyrenees), and spend a day in the city of the Popes, in St -Lizier (to Ariège).
However, if you prefer really relax , you can enjoy the wonders of Les Pesques without practically taking the car, perhaps moving around by bicycle or taking long walks along the riverbank, between the fields of sunflowers and corn . And, of course, returning to your shelter to sit under the hundred-year-old branches to leave your mind in peace, to absentmindedly observe how Brigitte and her daughter peel the apples to make jam, to pet the horse, to look out the window from bed feeling like the son who finally returns home.