Adventures in the French Countryside

This is a recount of last weekend's excursion to the French countryside, by Ken Schummers, our student participant from Austin, Texas.

"This weekend, we embarked on our second outing, this time in the direction of the French Pyrenees. We headed to our first stop at an alpaca farm. Upon finding the farm, we were greeted by a few curious alpacas, and the herder talked a bit about what they do, and more importantly, how their coat is processed and turned into usable fabrics.

Next up, we stopped for lunch at the foothills of the village of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges, to visit its beautiful Cathedral. This monument is a work of the 16th century, and almost everything in it is original. It is quite remarkable to believe that all these buildings are almost entirely original and intact. The Cathedral is a popular spot for pilgrims, many of whom might be going to Lourdes or on the Compostela trail.

Our final stop was at the Miellerie de Génos, a bee farm. We learned a bit about how the bee (abeille) creates the honey (miel), from the process of pollination of the flowers, to the collection of the honey. Most importantly, we were able to have a honey degustation, fresh from the honeycomb. It was really interesting to see how different pollinating flowers can affect the taste of these sweet juices. It is fair to say that everyone enjoyed their honey."