Trip to the Gironde - Cognac

We managed to track Ruth and Andrew down in the most beautiful free camping spot right on the banks of the Charente River overlooking the old town and the Hennessy Cognac building.

Camping is a national passion and free camping is legal in designated spots. In Limoux often the camping ground would be empty whilst all the free camping places were full.

As our friends were unable to shake us off, they invited us for dinner in their “palais de wheels,” the motorhome. We, along with other

campers, were able to sit on benches on the grass overlooking the beautiful view whilst cooking food and drinking wine. John said he was surprised Ruth and Andrew didn’t offer to pack up camp and drive us to our accommodation which was near the train station – about a 30 minute walk. I, naturally, reminded John that exercise was good for us.

Cognac is a town of with a population of 20,000 south east of La Rochelle and 400 km south west of Paris. The town gives its name to brandy known as Cognac. The industry is the dominant industry in Cognac and all the buildings have a black, soot-like growth over the walls due to a distillery fungus that is fed by liquor evaporating from the barrels before bottling. The closer to a distillery the more dense the "soot." They say they lose about 3% per year – this is called the Angel’s Share.

There are many well-known cognac houses that can be visited including Hennessy, Martell, Otard, Camus, Remy Martin and Jarnac, home to Courvoisier. We visited Otard distillery and learned about the grading of wine known as the Appellation Controlee. It is very complex. To add confusion each house grades their own cognac eg VS (very special); VSOP (very superior)and XO (eXtra old) amongst other terms..

The Otard distillery tour was really interesting. It was the home of the Baron Otard and birthplace of King Francis I. We walked through the chateau, the banqueting halls (that were at one time housed Napoleon’s prisoners as evidenced by the graffiti on the wall), the cellars and a museum. We ended up in a tasting room and after being educated how to appreciate cognac we sampled some of their

wares. We weren’t appreciative enough to change from ordinary wine to cognac unlike the spiders that live in the lower vault near the big oak barrels. These spiders take in their bit of the Angel’s Share. They are so drunk that their webs are an erratic, disorganised mess. Apparently they have been doing it for centuries.

Eager to receive some of our Angel's Share we visited the public gardens between the Hotel de Ville and Museum across from the distillery. It was a really beautiful public space. The geese were very hygiene conscious and we watched them diligently (or obsessively) grooming themselves for a considerable amount of time.

Next: Trip to the Gironde – St Emilion