Le Chateau de Soussis, or Soucis (sur le cadastre) , in the Tarn-Et-Garonne, 82. Near… Montcuq, Cahors, or if you don’t know those, you may know Toulouse. Or Two Wins. Hahaha. (Ahem). Located in the region of Midi-Pyrennees.
I was told “Experts” (I am not sure who those were) dated the remaining tower of this “chateau” which was apparently the hunting lodge of a nearby, much larger castle in Saux, from the late 1300’s, and it would have seen a lot at the time of the Cathars and the Huguenot religious wars. Aren’t religions a blessing? … *.
The Pigeonnier, (pigeon cot?) was also one of the oldest parts of the building. They think there used to be 4 towers to this small chateau, and only one remained, which had collapsed with time (you can’t see it on this picture, it is to the left of the building) and was used to keeping garden tools in. It was nice growing up in a chateau, but it didn’t have the prestige of the chateaux of the fairy tales. Well: there were no witches, no water pits, no queens, no prince charmings about, even though there were a lot of toads and frogs. Those tiny toads which carry the eggs on their backs, make the most amusing notes in summer: if you have been to France in that area you probably will have had your share of night serenade in July or August!
The main living house of la maison, was an (1800’s?) habitation, and had been bought by one of my great-grand-father, late 1800, with the rest of the property. They had a very small holding, and my father made it into a bigger small farm through the 80’s, having about 40/50 black and white cows friesian (dairy) at a time when cows still had horns; and a lot of fields for us to drive the tractor on and gather straw bales or white stones…It was not called the Quercy Blanc (Hint: pronounce…Kercee Blan, leave the C out) for nothing, as it was a very very stony land. Hence why the local houses are all made with that chalky, beautiful white stone.
That is it, enough history for today!
Here is one of the late ducks there, to entertain you…(she was about to do a dance) Those ducks had a habit of flying onto the roof, at least they had no fox disturbance there!… Yes, these are the breeds of ducks used to make Foie Gras. This one escaped!
*No need to comment on this any further.
Ps: In this case, the * does not denote the presence of an organically grown and processed ingredient. (see reference on the chocolate tablettes, reference which we have not written down yet)