fête du safran

We always think of Cajarc as being where our love affair with this area began. 10 years ago, having decided to look for a holiday retreat, we identified Lot as a likely area. Far enough south for good weather, not as "English" as the Dordogne, good accessibility and several possible airports and we remembered lovely scenery from earlier holiday visits. So it was that we booked into the little hotel in Cajarc for a few days during half term to do a spot of househunting.

The estate agent in Cajarc was less than useful - we had made an appointment to see several possible properties, but when we arrived at the office on our first morning he told us he had cancelled us and left a message on our answerphone ( obviously we had left home the day before and not got that!) Eventually, somewhat disgruntled, he took us to couple of places but we only saw the inside of one. So we went on to plan B and headed for Villefranche where we found a more amenable agency where someone was happy to show us some places. On day two we had an appointment in St Antonin and we soon became attracted to the area south of the Lot. We also found "Pavillon" at Bruniquel and immediately fell in love with the place despite its obvious drawbacks ( as it turns out even more of those than we realised at the time, but that's another story). We bought it and the rest is history as they say - we had several years of very happy holidays beside the Vere, spending more and more time here until we eventually took the plunge and moved here permanently. Now we live in Tarn et Garonne between the Lot and the Aveyron valleys giving us a wide and varied environment to explore.

Today in Cajarc it was the fête du safran. It was our first visit to this event and this morning we joined a visit to a saffron farm. It was a splendidly French affair - we were told to meet outside the tourist office at 10.30 so parked up and joined quite a crowd which was gathered. At 10.30 someone arrived and sent us off to get our cars to follow him to his farm - after a mad dash for the cars and some chaos outside the tourist office as cars who were nothing to do with the visit tried to get through Cajarc minding their own business a convoy of 10 cars set off into the hills through the winding lanes to the farm. 6kms later we arrived. Although we had missed the best flowering period for the crocus and the number of flowers was a little disappointing the visit was really interesting.







We headed along the beautiful Lot valley road to  St Cirq for lunch as we wanted to visit a shop there for Christmas goodies. It was nice to see St Cirq less busy than in the summer months but not deserted like a film set as it will be in the months to come. This weekend is the middle of the Toussaint half term and there is quite a holiday feel out and about.

Back in Cajarc tomorrow there is a grand saffron repas. We are giving this a miss - the main course is pied de cochon au safran - probably the only dish we have ever both found totally inedible, and also totally unforgettable, when we were served it all those years ago in Cajarc.