The first item on today’s agenda was breakfast in the town of Lupiac. But there were a couple of delays.

Ariane wanted us to see the Donjon de Bassoues, a defensive tower once part of the fortifications for the town of Bassoues. Inside were 4 rooms on different levels. Those of us who were up for the climb of 197 steps were rewarded with beautiful views of the surrounding countryside.

After leaving the town of Bassoues, there was a traffic jam.

Arriving in Lupiac, we found a table set for us in the middle of the town square.

We were being treated to a real Gascon breakfast, prepared by La Taverne de d’Artagnan. We were joined by the Mayor of Lupiac.

Garlic soup; toast, with bacon and sheep cheese; pieces of cèpe omelette; grilled chicken hearts; a puff pastry; coffee, orange juice, and wine.

A little background on why we were having breakfast in Lupiac:

Charles de Batz de Castelmore, aka d’Artagnan, was born in Lupiac in the early 1600s, in a castle outside of town, Castelmore. He served as Captain of the elite Musketeers of the Guard for King Louis XIV. He was made famous in the novel by Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers (and by the various modern-day screen adaptations of his novel).

Ariane, founder of d’Artagnan Foods, told us it has been her dream to cook in the castle where d’Artagnan was born. In preparing for this tour, she contacted the new owner of Castelmore and asked if we could use the kitchen. He agreed.

That was our assignment: To cook, in the childhood home of d’Artagnan, the magret that we cut from our ducks yesterday, plus the accompanying courses chosen by our three teams.

No easy task. It’s a 16th century castle. Our magret was to be cooked over an open fire in the fireplace. We weren’t just cooking for ourselves; we were cooking for our tour group, plus a crew filming Ariane for an upcoming television series (Qui Veut Être Mon Associé?; the French equivalent of Shark Tank, I am told), plus: the owner of the castle, a journalist, and the Mayor of Lupiac. Lunch for 16. No pressure.

Oh, and another thing: the pans supplied to us by the new owner of the castle had plastic handles (which don’t work well with open fires).

Upon arriving at Castlemore, the new owner, Yves Claude, former president of the supermarket chain Auchan, gave us a tour, and told us of his plans. Renovations are underway, and it will take another year or two before he is done. He seemed generally interested in historic preservation of the castle.

After the tour, it was time to get to work. Thankfully, we had Roger, a real chef, who quickly figured out how to adapt to the … uh … less than ideal circumstances. His was the hard part—to cook the magret and everything else in the fireplace (without burning it). My job was to wipe clean and chop the 8 kilos of mushrooms that we bought yesterday, chop 10 or so shallots, and mince 8 cloves of garlic. I ignored the cameras and remained focused. Pat and Marc were in charge of chopping the vegetables for the salad. Sargina and Cathy made two apple crumbles for dessert, one with ginger. (They used a modern oven that was in the kitchen.)

Here is a slide show of the action:

After a couple of hours, it was time to feed the masses.

It was delicious.

After the meal, Ariane, with Lupiac’s Mayor and the owner of the castle, handed us certificates making us honorary Gascon chefs.

It was quite an honor to help Ariane realize her dream, and we were fortunate to have Roger, who kept us organized and got the job done in the limited time we had.

After we finished at the castle, we went back to Lupiac for a brief visit to the d’Artagnan Museum.

We ended the day with… more food. Dinner at Auberge la Baquère, in the town of Préneron. While drinking our aperitif, Ariane and I played a couple of rounds of pool (we ended in a draw, at one game apiece). That gave us a little more time to digest our lunch before dinner was served. Our entrée: foie gras and pork. The main dish was chicken from a breed of black chickens of the region. Dessert was Armagnac, prunes and ice cream, and the meal was capped with some Armagnac brought from home by the chef.

A couple of days later, the article about our Castelmore culinary efforts appeared in the local paper, La Dépêche.

If you are trying to read the article, you’ll note that Pat was using her nom de cuisine, Patricia O’Hara. (Just kidding—the reporter just got it wrong.)