Friday 6th September 2024

Up early and off to Cognac today. It’s only 50 mins down the road and a nice drive mainly through the countryside. Cognac appears to be a nice town but it was drizzling rain all day so a bit hard to really appreciate the place.

Flashy had booked a tour of a distillery. Not any distillery, or even one of the big four houses. He was taken by the name of Fanny Fougerat who owns and distils under her own name. I bet you’ve never heard of Fanny Fougerat Cognac, eh?

It's a small house selling about 15,000 bottles a year and operates two beautiful pot stills in a little village on the outskirts of Cognac. Flashy was the only customer, so had a personalised, hour long talk, walk and tasting of six different Cognacs, from the fresh, light two year old to the Reserve 22 year old version. Fanny had very good English and was happy to have an amateur distiller pester her with questions.

On the way out of Cognac market, we spotted a barber. Well, he was really a hairdresser as he did hommes as well as femmes. After he explained that in France a ‘number two’ means 2 mm and fearing a repeat of the previous haircut, we settled on a numero cinq. 5 mm all round.

He also did the eyebrows and scissored all the edges, cut throat razor the side burns and neck. No blood of course. A decent job for €16. Nice chap as they say in Soho! You know, man bun, nice cologne and expensive clothes. But hey, better than a Russian “barber” with fat fingers!

The afternoon involved much shoveling of the remaining soil to all parts of the garden. By 4 pm Flashy needed a beer. Lady P headed off for a 6 km walk with a large rock in her backpack. Of course, Flashy gave his advice as to packing said pack. She returned in good shape for a delicious chicken cacciatore dinner. And a little aside here. The supermarket chicken is not only delicious but quite cheap. It actually tastes of, well, chicken! A delight to cook with and yellow skin/fat to make your arteries contract. The hot ones, even at the market are 20 Euro a bird. Bloody disgraceful.

That's better


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