A morning trip to the Marciac jazz festival was always on the cards, however as we would have to pass through Bassoues on the way there, a side trip for day time photos and possibly a wander up the tower was also called for.

The idea was not to visit the main events at Marciac, after all those are evening performances, plus there’s a limit to how much and what jazz I can listen to, but rather to sample the atmosphere during the day time. However to get there we would have to pass by or through Bassoues and we could not resist, after all we were limited in how far we could wander the night before. In many respects I wish we could have stayed in that village as it has just such a nice atmosphere, even if there is just the one place to eat and drink. In the end we resisted going up the tower, but it still pleasantly delayed our arrival at Marciac by over an hour.

Marciac itself was interesting. Apparently the 49 weeks of the year when the festival is not on it is a dead town, however at present it was bustling with life and the large market square was much covered with a marquee containing a stage and seating. Note the main performances are held in a large tented area just outside the town. Round the outside you had stalls plus the regular shops and restaurants, with the latter presumably suitably priced. Certainly some were obviously hiding non-show meal costs. We stayed for lunch at one of the few places offering bistro type meals (as opposed to large main courses) then hit the stall for an Armagnac distillery. I was tempted to buy a bottle of VSOP or XO, both of which were reasonably priced (€20 and €40 respectively for 70cl), but then noticed the aged bottles and costs. As today was my birthday I treated myself to an aged bottle from 1968 (yes I hit 55). Cost wise. A bit more than the other two. A fair bit more. Well it was my birthday …. €110.

So poorer and happier we left. I was not sure how I would take to the atmosphere, but it was nice. Not enough to miss it if we had not been, but enough to be glad we had. It was now back to Auch with an hour or so to kill before heading back out for dinner.

So the plan was simple. Wander from the hotel, across the river, up to the cathedral, then find some where to eat. All bar the latter part were completed with no issues and we had time to spare, so we sat in a bar and had a drink. As I was not driving it was my first beer of the holiday. Food wise there were a lot of options, but being my birthday I wanted a restaurant and all around there were just bistros and bars. We settled after lots of procrastinating on one of the bistros with lots of good reviews on Tripadvisor, Le France. Things started well, we were advised it would be a short while before service, no problem since it was before 7 and a live rock/blues act was setting up in the square. Suddenly the place became busy and it took a while to order. Our starters arrived in reasonable time and were decent enough, but then we waited and waited. A waiter cleared out dishes and asked it we wanted dessert, then looked surprised when we asked about our steaks. These arrived shortly and were described by the right level of cooking, à point for my mother, saignant for me. For entrecôte steaks I have not seen such poorly prepared cuts and they were under cooked, so my mother’s was rare and mine was on the point of blue. Fortunately we can both eat them that way (and before you comment about how the English cook their steaks further than the French, we are will versed on what the correct (i.e. French) cooking levels should be 😉 ). To be honest it was as if the chef had left and some one had stepped in at short notice to cook our mains. Still could have been worse as a couple by us were completely forgotten about had had to re-order their main course. I will be blunt though, while not fatty or with gristle, this was possibly one of the worst pieces of meat I have eaten in a long time. We did not bother with deserts.

We got back across the river to find the bar we thought we would have a night cap in was now closed, however a restaurant near the hotel allowed us to get a couple of drinks, so a relaxing end to the day.

Tomorrow we start heading back north with a stop in Cognac. Day 5 now over.