Garden group November 8th, 2017 at Palmeraie de Sarthou

Dear Gardeners

For our November outing we will be going to the wonderful, exotic, 

Palmeraie du  Sarthou in 32110 Bétous.

Jardin Exotique en Gascogne

Because the gardens are closed on Thursdays we have arranged to go on: 

Wednesday 8th November, 

meeting there at 2pm

This garden was named a “Jardin Remarquable” in 2006 and The gardens at the Palmeraie are of great interest to plant lovers and gardeners with many tropical species, palms, banana, bamboo -  flourishing. 
 There is a also a restored Gascon farm house in which one can see how the typical farmer would have lived with his family - complete with animals and a collection of metal sculptures set in the garden. Mostly made from scrap and machine parts these represent real and fantastic animals. 
Then there is the woodland walk round the "prairie" and another surprise of two crashed aircraft in the trees !

There will be a charge of €6.50 per person which includes a guided visit and tea and cake afterwards, this is for 10 people, for less it will be € 7.00. 

directions:
take the D48 road from Aignan to Nogaro, after about 3 k turn right onto D 111 following the sign to Jardin exotique, after about 2 k there is a right turn. (Hidden in the hedge ) to Palmeraie du Sarthou, this leads you direct to the garden, turn right again by the bins.
DIRECTIONS: 
https://www.palmeraiesarthou.com/contact


LINK TO WEBSITE:  https://www.palmeraiesarthou.com

We look forward to seeing you there - if you would like to bring a picnic you are welcome to do so - there is an undercover area in case the weather is not on our side !

Meetings are on the first Thursday of the month.

for more information please contact Ladieslunchclub secretary: 

lunchclubgascogne(at)gmail.com

or you join the blog here:

follow by email (click on this link if you want regular info)

Sign up for LLC Luncheon on November 14th, 2017

Hello Ladies,

Our November lunch 2017 will take place on

Tuesday November 14th at 

Le Pigeonneau Restaurant in Riscle

12.00 noon for 12.30 pm

Tel 05 62 69 85 64 at ​36, Avenue de l'Adour 32400 Riscle, 

and we invite you to make your reservation (on the booking form emailed to members) as soon as possible. 

Menu 18 Euros

Entrée

Carpaccio de Boeuf avec Pesto, Parmesan et des grains de Tournesol 

Beef Carpaccio with Pesto, Parmesan and Sunflower seeds

Ou/or

Salade Grillée aux Courgettes et Mozzarella 

Grilled Salad of Courgettes topped with Mozzarella

+++

Poulet Suprème au Brie et Chorizo avec ses Pommes de Terre et ses petits Légumes

Chicken Supreme stuffed with Brie and Chorizo and served with Potatoes and Vegetables 

Ou/or

Filet de Carrelet avec une mousseline de Pommes de Terre et des Légumes  

Filet of Sole with mousseline Potatoes and Vegetables

+++

Tartelette Chocolat Chaud

Warm chocolate tartlet

+++

The menu has wine and coffee or tea included.

Deadline for bookings is the 7th of November 
so please submit your booking form (sent to members) as soon as possible with your choice of starter and main course. 
As usual, we will be sending out a list of those who have booked just before that date. 
If you have any problems with the Booking Form please email Margaretha. at lunchclubgascogne@gmail.com

Please bring your cheque (€18)  made out to Ladies Lunch Club de l’Armagnac or cash, 
in an envelope with your name on it. 
Please do not forget your name tags.

We look forward to seeing you for our lunch.


The Committee

For more information about any of the above or our next meeting and venue, please contact:
LLC secretary: lunchclubgascogne(at)gmail.com
or you join the blog here:
follow by email
(click on this link if you want regular info)
or our facebook page (see widget on the blog)
Ladies Lunch Club de l'Armagnac.

The Ladykillers - invitation to theatre play in Lectoure

To kick off the festive season the next Vagabond production will be the stage version of 
The Ladykillers 

based on the classic Ealing comedy and adapted by Graham Linehan of Father Ted fame, so a suitably wacky take on the original, made wackier by us doing it in drag (see attached pic, taken by Mike of course), inspired by the recent all-female production in Belfast. (Why should men have all the best lines?) 

If you're not familiar with the film, picture a dilapidated house in North London in 1956. Enter the self-styled 'Professor' Marcus, who rents a room from the little old landlady, all alone in the world apart from her diseased parrot. He introduces her to the four other members of his gang, claiming they are a troupe of madrigal singers, much to her delight. It is here that they plot a raid on a security van, in which she becomes their unwitting, innocent accomplice. But nothing goes according to plan, and the hapless thieves are soon at war with each other - a recipe for murder, mayhem, and several kinds of madness. Including a special surprise we can't reveal in advance! 

The show will be on 
Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd December in the Salle de la Comédie, Lectoure. 

As it’s winter both shows will be matinées, starting at 2.30 p.m. so you can have lunch in Lectoure beforehand if you wish, get home before dark, and still have the evening free.

For tickets please contact Lucy see email address on the poster. Do not contact LLC committee please. 

bookclub meetings until Christmas 2017

Dear Bookclubbers, 

The August meeting in Pam’s garden was very enjoyable and all the fizz, canapes, poetry and book talk when down really well!

September 21st:  The Tobacconist by Robert Seethaler  (recommended by Fiona) 
we had a good meeting and discussed the book. 

The programme up until Christmas is listed below:

October 19th:  The Sympathiser by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Sympathizer can be read as a spy novel, a war novel, an immigrant novel, a novel of ideas, a political novel, a campus novel, a novel about the movies, and a novel, yes, about other novels. 

This overreaching mixture leads to occasional missteps that matter little set against the greater result: a bold, artful and globally minded reimagining of the Vietnam war and its interwoven private and public legacies.

November 16th:  Theme month – A Modern Classic
There was some talk as to how to define a Modern Classic but we didn’t come up with anything entirely conclusive.  A Classic is a work of literature of acknowledged quality and enduring significance or popularity. 

What Constitutes a “Modern Classic?”

What makes a modern classic?

In extended use: something which is memorable and an outstanding example of its kind.  Modern?  Post 1950. 


December 21st:  A Christmas reading of your choice
ideas??? 

Listopia > Christmas Book Lists

Best Books to Read When the Snow Is Falling

1,586 books — 2,170 voters

Favorite Christmas Books

948 books — 1,212 voters

see you in October 2017
Jackie 

Remember, Book Club is always on the 3rd Thursday of the month. All meetings, unless notified, are at Pam’s at 2.30.

For more information about any of the above or our next meeting and venue, please contact:
LLC secretary: lunchclubgascogne(at)gmail.com
or you join the blog here:
follow by email
(click on this link if you want regular info)
or our facebook page (see widget on the blog)
Ladies Lunch Club de l'Armagnac.

Garden group October 2017 meeting

Dear Gardeners

For our October outing we have again made the decision to change the date in order to attend an event we’re sure you won’t want to miss !

The outing will be on 

Sunday 8th October 2017

and the event is the annual 

FOIRE AUX PLANTES RARES 

held in the picturesque hilltop village of Ordan-Larroque. 

There is always a large and interesting variety of plants and a lively atmosphere.

We hope you will all join us there at  (13h)  one o’clock — 

BRING A PICNIC 

—  we will meet in the car park below the village.

For those who don’t fancy the walk up to the village from the car park, there is a shuttle bus to take the strain !

http://handi.tourisme-occitanie.com/foire-aux-plantes-rares-meconnues-differentes/ordan-larroque/tabid/3194/offreid/08c672d4-6798-4449-847a-8066c4676110/fiche-handi.aspx

Look forward to seeing you there - Ordan-Larroque is on the N124 between Auch & St Jean Poutge

For more information about any of the above or our next meeting and venue, please contact:

LLC secretary: lunchclubgascogne@gmail.com
or you join the blog here:follow by email (click on this link if you want regular info) or our
facebook page (see widget on the blog)
Ladies Lunch Club de l'Armagnac.
or 
come to the Ladies Lunch on every 2d Tuesday each month or you join the blog here:follow by email 
(click on this link if you want regular info)

We will be delighted to hear your suggestions for garden visits. Please let us know if you have ideas and if you would host one of the meetings of the garden group.

Sign up for LLC Luncheon on 10th October 2017

Dear Ladies - 
It feels as if summer has flown by! Here we are already in early autumn and it is time to invite you to our lunch on 
Tuesday the 10th of October 2017. 
This month, we are going back to the three-star hotel and restaurant Chateau de Buros, in Escalans, just north of Gabarret. 

Angélique de Wit, the chef of Chateau de Buros, has once again created a mouth-watering menu for us:

Menu 18 Euros

Velouté de Tomate, Crème fraîche au Basilic

Tomato soup with Crème fraîche and Basil

Parmentier de Canard et ses Légumes de saison

Shepherd’s Pie with Duck and Vegetables in season

ou/or

Filet de Maquereau, Poireaux fondants et Brunoise de Pommes de terre

Mackerel fillet with Leeks and a Brunoise (finely diced Potatoes fried in butter)

Mousse de Fruits de saison avec son Crumble

Mixture of seasonal Fruit and Crumble

The cost of the menu is 18 euro, which includes the wine but not the coffee/tea.

Deadline for bookings is the 2nd of October so please submit your booking form as soon as possible with your choice of main course. As usual, we will be sending out a list of those who have booked just before that date. If you have any problems with the Booking Form please email Margaretha at <lunchclubgascogne@gmail.com>

We would very much appreciate it if you could bring along your cheque made payable to Ladies Lunch Club de l'Armagnac for 18 euros (or cash) in an envelope with your name clearly marked. This speeds up the checking in process. Booking in will start at 12 o’clock. Please note that you may be charged if you cancel within 72 hours of the lunch.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

Kind Regards
The LLC Committee

News from the book group

 

We have a lot in store for the next four months.

Do join us.

Our April Book shared the warmth of Sicily and richness of the writing as The Leopard seemed to sing to everyone’s hearts and will number among people’s top 10 books.  Everyone talked about the book with enthusiasm and such appreciation of the novel and we felt really blessed to have finally read it.

 

Set in the 1860s, The Leopard tells the spellbinding story of a decadent, dying Sicilian aristocracy threatened by the approaching forces of democracy and revolution. The dramatic sweep and richness of observation, the seamless intertwining of public and private worlds, and the grasp of human frailty imbue The Leopard with its particular melancholy beauty and power, and place it among the greatest historical novels of our time.

Although Giuseppe di Lampedusa had long had the book in mind, he began writing it only in his late fifties; he died at age sixty, soon after the manuscript was rejected as unpublishable. In his introduction, Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi, Lampedusa's nephew, gives us a detailed history of the initial publication and the various editions that followed. And he includes passages Lampedusa wrote for the book that were omitted by the original Italian editors.

 

 

In May, we meet again to discuss our reflections on: 

The Dry by Jane Harper. 

The meeting is on Thursday 18^th May, 2.30 at Pam’s.

 

Luke Hadler turns a gun on his wife and child, then himself. The farming community of Kiewarra is facing life and death choices daily. If one of their own broke under the strain, well...

When Federal Police investigator Aaron Falk returns to Kiewarra for the funerals, he is loath to confront the people who rejected him twenty years earlier. But when his investigative skills are called on, the facts of the Hadler case start to make him doubt this murder-suicide charge.

And as Falk probes deeper into the killings, old wounds start bleeding into fresh ones. For Falk and his childhood friend Luke shared a secret... A secret Falk thought long-buried... A secret which Luke's death starts to bring to the surface...  

June 15^th, the theme is Marriage.  Choose any book, however closely related to the subject of marriage and any type of marriage 'the biggest commitment two people can make to each other'.

 .
 

 

July 20^th  We discuss Cross Channel by Julian Barnes.

These are short stories so read as many or as few as you wish, to discuss. In these stories, Julian Barnes takes as his universal theme the British in France - the fascination with the country, the reasons for being there, and the sometimes ambiguous reception. Maybe some of us can find and laugh at ourselves here?

 

KEEP THE DATE;
August 17^th will be our annual Garden Party with lots of bubbles and books to swop and talk about. Get prepared by sorting out the  good condition and used books which are using space on your shelves which could be filled with new and enticing tales.

It's Mother's Day in France on 28th May..

 

Wishing Happy Mother's Day French style....

 

 

Did you know that the celebration of Mothers' Day started in the early 20th century in the US and it is not related to other celebrations of Mothers and Motherhood e.g. Christian Mothering Sunday, Greet cult of Cybele, or the Roman festival of Hilaria. In fact it's a purely commercial event but it does remind us to show our appreciation for our Mothers (or even be appreciated and spoiled) at least once a year.

 In France Mother's Day is the last Sunday in May so we can celebrate our Mothers twice. How do you celebrate in your native country?

 

 

 

 

Garden Club Visit to Lasbadies in Moncrabeau

The Garden Club enjoyed a wonderful visit to the open garden at Lasbadies on May 11th.

Despite the forecast, the storm held off and  all enjoyed this stunning garden, with beautiful planting topped with magnificent views. It was a mix of Old England and Tuscany with features varying from David Austin type roses to Italian sundials set around a beautifully sturdy Gascon house with Irises galore. We didn't manage to name half the plants.

It's a newish garden as in 1998 the site was a field of wild flowers with a ruin needing much attention. To provide shelter in such an exposed situation the garden was divided into different spaces each protected by hedges or a structure to create garden rooms each with its own character. 

The rooms include a large cobbled area with rill, a fountain and herbaceous beds bordered by a white wisteria and rose walk on one side and a raised hornbeam hedge on the other. 

Other rooms include a smaller circular garden with sculpture, cypressus and more vibrant planting, a box parterre, a potager and a secluded space with pool and abri. The roooms wrap round the house and are linked by paths, grassed areas and hedges giving a strong structure to the garden throughout the year.

Tea and gorgeous cakes with great conversations about gardening and plants we have known finished off a delightful time spent amongst friends and we thank Pat and Caroline for finding it for us.

 

We donated the proceeds from our trip to the children's leukaemia fund.

 

For those who missed it the garden can be viewed by appointment with Jenifer Story; Lieu dit Lasbadies
47600 Moncrabeau.  France. 05 53 65 60 54