laresident wrote: Sorry to divert a little but in my youth I went to the Pyrhenees a lot, hiking about by myself. I was very attracted to the idea of dropping out there with some goats. Which part do you go to?
My friends are way up in the foothills inbetween Foix and St Girons. there are quite a lot of non french peeps round there trying to eek out an existence as farmers of one sort or another, mostly organic, but that depends on who they are selling thier produce to. The french government claims to back the biologique farmers, but in reality puts so much pressure on them,ie; witholding promised subsidies, until they either go bankrupt or have to go non-biologique to sell thier wares. Fortunately, my friends, who started with nothing 12 years ago, have this year, finally made themselves a profit. They now have thier goats cheese into many local supermarkets and sell at 4 street markets. Lots of very hard work, long hours, 5:30am till 8:pm seven days a week.The location is just heavenly, no light or sound pollution, and the air is fairly clean too.
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