Even french vegan food is good

So, for tonight, I got to travel outside of Foix, to stay at a local farm owned by a pair of Brits, coincidentally. It seems like there are hoards of English people forsaking their island for Southern France. They've fixed up a house tucked deep in a valley outside of town - it used to be a barn but now has become a working, vegan guesthouse. They grow their own food organically, and make jars and jars of preserves and jams themselves. The house is beautiful, all old oak beams and stones.

For dinner, they made pumpkin soup from their canned pumpkins, a croque paysanne - with potatoes and other goodies all baked, fresh zucchini coming out of the garden now, and some chocolate mousse - all vegan but you'd never know it. They both admit they must have been crazy coming to Southern France just to give up cheese and duck, but they've really made it work in a seriously conservative part of the country - where most people would rather die than buy produce from someone English.

Niether of of them had experience before coming here - just some french and a willingness to take organic farming courses. They're almost off the grid entirely (apparently, it's not for just extreme Environmental Defense members). They have a running stream at the bottom of the valley, and make their own bread and soy milk. They're extremely excited since they just bought nine more hectares of land, and are going to put in fruit trees. Personally, I love their walnut trees and two very happy dogs. Tomorrow, i get to try their jams...

My favorite Frommer's listing so far is a small shop with a very dispassionate owner. The shop has no name, it's just a tiny space in Foix that sells old antiques. And by antiques I mean piles of old french keys, clocks, iron works, and junk - heaped on two giant tables. She had piles of old french postcards from the early 1900s, which she reluctantly sold me, with Spanish-accented french, before she went back across the street for une tasse of something. Tomorrow I'm going to ask her how long the shop has been there, we'll see how it goes.

No more small b&b's for a while - a person could get used to this...