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 Exotic Events > Spitting and pulling!
 Prune-stone spitting
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Sight seeing
Gardens & Parks
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Vegetable Visions gardens ( :J.M.-CDT47) |
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There are dozens of places where cultivated natural beauty is star of the show. From the water-lily gardens at Temple-sur Lot to the roses of St Livrade; the extraordinary Vegetable Visions gardens at Colayrac-St-Cirq or the Fruit-tree Conservatory at Montesquieu.
Then there are the cloistered gardens at Marmande, the Medieval garden at Montflanquin, or the many botanical gardens, sign-posted flowered walkways and specially laid out rambling routes heavy with the scents of carefully chosen plants and trees.
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Underground caves at Lastournel-les (:J.M.-CDT47) |
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Nature reserves are also pretty thick on the ground, offering visitors and inhabitants alike a detailed journey through the region’s plant life, past and present. The reserve at Villeton alone, an area of fens in a Garonne meander, contains some 200 types of birds, 42 species of mammals, 250 plant types and over 800 species of insects.
The underground world also opens up its 30 million year-old treasures of stalactites and stalacmites to visitors to the caves of Fonitrou (at Castella) and Lastournelles (at St Collombe-de-Villeneuve).
An exhaustive list of all the public gardens and nature reserves is available in French at http://www.cg47.org/decouvrir/sites_decouvertes/jardins.htm |
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Prune-stone spitting
(:Virginie Traversier) |
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For the last 4 years, Sainte Livrade has been putting on a world championship prune-stone spitting competition each summer, with some 140 contestants from 12 different countries (2002 entries).
Each entrant is kitted out with a special tee-shirt and cap and, of course, competition size prunes. The elimination rounds are judged by a jury of locals and the contest can be very close, with prolongations and « golden prune-stone » play-offs to decide the grand winner.
Last year saw Stéphane Ferret winning with a 10m 95cm launch, just 2 cm ahead of his nearest rival. For the record, runner up was Sister Theresa…
Melon-pip spitting
Not far from Nérac, visitors to the village of Fréchou (pop. 259) have a good laugh with the « revived ancient custom » of spitting melon pips across a square called a « melodrome ».
The world record here is the 10m 46 cm achieved in 2001, while the 2002 winner was a certain Angela Almeda with a mouth-propelled melon pip launch of 7m 53cm. Any takers ? All comers are welcome…and the melons are absolutely delicious.
World record : 48 bottles in 5 minutes
The Buzet wine area stages the world championship wine bottle uncorking competition during the village of Lavardac’s annual fête. Contestants train hard all year then test their skills at the fête, after much ‘wrist warming’ ( !?). The contestants are easy to spopt in the crowd, flexing their knees, bottles firmly trapped betwwen their legs, with facial expressions of deep concentration. The world record, held since 1997 by local cork-puller Gérard Alaux, is 48 bottles in 5 minutes, a pop every 6.25 seconds. The whole thing is taken ever so not too seriously, with other wine-based prowesses such as barrel rolling, part of the show too.
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