Sunday 12 July - Tarbes & Domaine de Bile

During the closing phases of Wellington's advance into France in 1813, there had been a battle north of Tarbes which had, over the years, been unreported and about which there had been disagreement about the scenes of engagement. Michael Ayrton and John Taylor, both ex Army officers with a keen interest in military history, had taken five years of painstaking research to set the record straight, particularly with respect to the engagement by the 95th against Harispe's 8th Division on the Orleix Ridge NNE of Tarbes. We had their book 'The Sharpest Fight' as a reference and drove around the key places described including the telegraph tower at Oleac, the church at Bours from where the battle was observed by some redcoats and the approach roads from Vic Bigorre and Rabasten. The terrain appeared to fit the description well. Since Michael Ayrton lived not too far away, we were lucky enough to make contact with him and arrange to meet him the following day to swap interests and hopefully learn more.

Overnight, we found another excellent France Passion site where we were able to park in the vineyards of Domaine de Bile near the village of Bossoues where they specialised, to M2,s delight, in Armagnac. So, for the price of a bottle of 11 year old Armagnac, a bottle of sweet Floc as an aperitif and some locally produced pate, we had another free night.