Things to do
Most days here are spent by the pool
It is what most guests do, and what they come back for. This page is for the other days.
The key
Eight marks, used only where we can vouch for them. Most entries carry none.
- Our pick
- The one we would send you to first
- Small children
- Genuinely fine with young children, not merely tolerable
- Free
- No charge to visit, or the tasting is free
- Book ahead
- Ring or reserve. Several of these have no walk-ups at all
- Shaded
- Has real shade, which in August decides the afternoon
- Good in the rain
- Works on the third consecutive wet day
- English spoken
- Confirmed English spoken. Assume French everywhere else
- A whole day
- Commits the day rather than an hour of it
Or let us arrange it
We can organise the meal, the chef, or the whole event
Two separate things. We can put on one-off catering for a party or a special night, or arrange a private chef for every evening of your stay with daily housekeeping alongside it.
Both are priced apart from the house and both need a fortnight’s notice. Very little out here operates in English, so it is usually simpler handed over.
Weddings are a different thing entirely →
I want something to eat
13 places
Eating, from the doorstep to the long way out
Ordered by how far you have to go. The first few are a whim; the last are an occasion and need booking well ahead. Watch the seasons here especially — two of the best things run only in winter, and one only in August.
Photo: Fod, CC BY 2.5 DK · source
10 min
Thursday and Saturday mornings
Saint Clar market
Producers under the 13th-century timber market hall. Saint Clar is the centre of Ail Blanc de Lomagne, the IGP white garlic, so the garlic is not a souvenir here — it is the local industry.
- Our pick
Photo: Morburre, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
No website · ask us
10 min
Thursday evenings in August
Les soirées gourmandes, Saint Clar
Producers set up under the halle and you eat off their plates wherever you can find a seat, with music. The garlic festival falls on the first Thursday; the competition on the third, judged on sacks, bundles and braids before the public is let in, and ending in a communal meal for around 1,300 people. Garlic has been grown here since 1265.
- Our pick
Their site ↗
10 min
Closed some weeks in Feb and March
La Table de Nazère, Avezan
The best food within ten minutes of the house, and it is not close. The kitchen cooks out of a permaculture garden watered from springs and rainwater cisterns, which is why Michelin gave it a Green Star rather than a conventional one. Book — the dining room is in a restored stone hamlet and it fills.
- Our pick
- Book ahead
Their site ↗
16 min
Dinner only, closed weekends
La Tour du Fleurance
The nearest proper sit-down dinner to the house. Honest regional cooking — duck confit, sweetbreads flambéed in Armagnac — rather than anything you would drive for. It seats seventy-six inside and about a hundred and fifty with the terrace, so it absorbs a party of twelve at short notice. The weekend closure catches people out.
Their site ↗
16 min
Tuesdays, late October to March
Marché au gras, Fleurance
Held in the Halle au Gras, and a working trade market rather than a tourist one: whole ducks and geese and raw foie gras sold by the farms that raised them. Completely pointless in summer — the halle is empty and the market above ground is an ordinary town market.
Their site ↗
25 min
Melons in summer
Vente et Cueillette à Thibaut, Terraube
Third-generation melon growers, part of the association that defends the Melon de Lectoure name. Pick your own, or buy at the gate along with tomatoes, courgettes and squash. They deliver within twenty kilometres, which is worth knowing with a full house.
- Small children
Their site ↗
30 min
Racinette, Lectoure
The owners are Canadian and Belgian, so ordering in English is not a performance — which makes this the easiest good dinner in the area rather than the best one. Closed at the start of the week.
- English spoken
Their site ↗
30 min
Closed Mondays
Le Bastard, Lectoure
An 18th-century hôtel particulier by the cathedral with a large terrace over the rooftops and the valley. The cooking is careful and local rather than exciting. Go for the terrace and the view and treat the food as a bonus.
Their site ↗
30 min
Monday evenings, mid-July to August
Les Nuits du Lundi, Lectoure
The main street closes to traffic and fills with brocanteurs, producers, food trucks and children's activities until midnight, with the town's own shops staying open alongside. Run by the local traders rather than staged for visitors.
- Small children
Their site ↗
30 min
Lunch only, closed Sun and Mon
Le Cochon Bleu, Lectoure
A bookshop carrying over five thousand titles that also serves one plat du jour at lunch. Good for a solo hour with a book, much less good for twelve people.
- Good in the rain
Their site ↗
about an hour
Mondays, late October to March
Marché au gras, Samatan
Two markets back to back — carcasses first, then foie gras — and the largest of its kind in the Gers. Only worth the hour if you actually intend to buy and cook. Fleurance does the same job sixteen minutes away.
Their site ↗
about an hour
Le Puits Saint Jacques, Pujaudran
One of only two Michelin-starred restaurants in the whole Gers. A whole afternoon, not a dinner.
- A whole day
Their site ↗
about an hour and a quarter
La Maison Despouès, Puylausic
The other one. Further again, and worth it only if a starred lunch is the point of the day.
- A whole day
No website · ask us
I want something for the children
12 places
The two best things are three minutes away
A supervised swimming lake and a wallaby park sit on the same lane as the house, both close enough that a wet afternoon costs nothing to abandon. After that it is ordered by distance, ending with the two that exist for the third consecutive day of rain.
3 min
Lifeguarded in summer
Base de Loisirs Es Calaves, Saint Clar
A lake with a sand beach, two big slides, pedalos and a large inflatable obstacle course, plus kayak and sailing hire. There is a second, larger lake alongside whose swimming access varies year to year.
- Our pick
- Small children
No website · ask us
3 min
Spring through September
Le Vallon des Kangourous
Four hectares walked on foot among semi-free wallabies, emus, llamas and alpacas, with a fossil sandpit at the end. Afternoons, and it moves to mornings in a heatwave. Card only.
- Our pick
- Small children
Their site ↗
12 min
All year, sky permitting
La Ferme des Étoiles, Mauroux
A 620mm telescope, a seven-metre planetarium and the largest pair of binoculars in the world, twelve minutes away. They run dinner-and-observation evenings as well as residential courses, so you can go for one night rather than book a week. This is the organisation behind the Fleurance festival, and the sky out here is properly dark. Ring ahead — the evening programme is not published far in advance.
- Book ahead
Their site ↗
15 min
All year, closed Mondays
Château de Gramont
A state-run château, medieval at the core with a Renaissance range and terraced gardens. Free for under-18s, which with a houseful is most of the bill gone. Pushchairs get into the park but not the rooms, so carry small children. No dogs.
Photo: MOSSOT, CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Their site ↗
16 min
Mid-June to mid-September
Piscine municipale, Fleurance
An open-air 25m pool with a separate toddler pool and a shallow play area with massage jets. Municipal and unglamorous, and the nearest reliable swim that is neither a lake nor a campsite. Schools have priority on some weekdays at each end of the season.
- Small children
Their site ↗
16 min
First week of August
Festival d'Astronomie, Fleurance
Bigger than it sounds, with a dedicated programme for children and teenagers. If your week falls across it, it is worth planning around.
Their site ↗
30 min
All year, by appointment only
L'Azinet, Sarrant
A working donkey farm with five circuits from three and a half to fourteen kilometres — donkeys either saddled for small children or panniered to carry the picnic — plus four animal-powered mills making flour. Sarrant has a good bookshop-café to finish in. Everything is by appointment; there is no dropping in.
- Small children
- Book ahead
Their site ↗
30 min
Water July and August only
Base de Loisirs Le Lomagnol, Beaumont-de-Lomagne
A thirty-hectare lake with three pools, waterslides, an inflatable aquapark, canoe and paddle hire, minigolf and beach volleyball. Entry to the grounds is free and only the water is charged, so it works as a whole day for twelve without committing to anything.
- Our pick
- Free
- Small children
Their site ↗
30 min
All year
Musée Fermat, Beaumont-de-Lomagne
An interactive maths museum in the house where Pierre de Fermat was born, refurbished in 2025, with a panorama from the top of the tower. Better than it sounds, and indoors. But it is one hour rather than three, and children under about seven will get the tower and nothing else.
- Good in the rain
Their site ↗
50 min
Daily in summer; weekends and by booking otherwise
Le Vert en l'Air, Pavie
Five hectares of oak woodland with treetop courses from age three — parents walk alongside the smallest at ground level — plus a tablet-guided treasure hunt, electric off-road scooters and paintball. The age spread is the point: one of the few places a six-year-old and a fifteen-year-old are both occupied.
- Small children
- Book ahead
Their site ↗
50 min
Park spring to autumn; water summer
Walygator Sud-Ouest, near Agen
The full theme-park day, plus an adjoining water park with eighteen slides. It is not a Gers day out and nobody comes here for it. On a wet week it is the thing that saves you.
- A whole day
Their site ↗
55 min
Animal park all year; courses seasonal
Happy Forest, Pont-du-Casse
Seven hectares of century-old oak with fifteen treetop courses, an animal park, pony rides, minigolf and an air-conditioned escape room. The mature woodland is the real argument for it over the alternatives — it is the one adventure park round here that is bearable in an August heatwave.
- Shaded
Their site ↗
I want a long walk
12 places
Waymarked loops, six to ten kilometres
Saint Clar itself offers a short stroll or half a day and little between. The twenty minutes around it are better served: these are all waymarked loops of six to ten kilometres, ordered by distance from the house. Three start from the same car park in Fleurance, which makes one destination and three lengths.
Photo: Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
From the village
Chemin de la Bénazide, Saint Clar
Five and a half kilometres from the square. The walk on the doorstep, and the one to do on the first morning.
- Our pick
Their site ↗
16 min, park at the Moulin du Roy
All year
Le Chemin du Pigeonnier, Fleurance
Ten kilometres in about two and a half hours, and — this is the number that matters — well under a hundred metres of climb across the whole loop. It is essentially flat, waymarked, and starts on a surfaced path past the lake before turning into open country. The one to choose with mixed ages or an eight-year-old who has never walked ten kilometres. Better shade than any ridge route here.
- Our pick
- Small children
- Shaded
Their site ↗
18 min
All year
Quand on marchait sur les chemins, Lagarde
Eight and a half kilometres with barely eighty metres of climb, waymarked, and shortenable if the group fades. Passes the Château d'Argentens and its arboretum and the church at Sainte-Radegonde. The closest walk in this bracket to the house, and among the flattest.
- Small children
Their site ↗
30 min
All year; muddy in winter
Le versant nord de Lectoure
Nine kilometres, about three hours, over farm track, woodland including a small bamboo grove, and quiet lanes. The best-reviewed walk in range by some distance. Two honest caveats from people who have done it: the waymarking has gaps in two places, and there are ticks in the long grass in spring.
- Our pick
Their site ↗
25 min, park at the church
Genuinely bad after rain
Le petit tour de Tourrenquets
Six and a half kilometres and almost no climb — the easiest entry point on this list, and walked by a group with children aged six to nine. But it is a lot of tarmac, quiet tarmac though it is, it turns to serious mud in winter, and people keep asking for more signs at the junctions.
- Small children
Their site ↗
25 min
Avoid after heavy rain
Le circuit des Potiers, Montgaillard
Just under ten kilometres in about three and a half hours, through chestnut and oak woods and past two lakes, and reported as well marked throughout. Be warned: it is roughly half tarmac and half track, there is nowhere to sit anywhere on it, and it turns to mud after rain.
Their site ↗
30 min, park under the plane trees
All year; start early in August
Le sentier des Pigeonniers, Sarrant
Seven and a half kilometres, around two hours, rated very easy, with four dovecotes to find along the way and a board at each. The best walk here for children specifically, because counting pigeonniers gives them a job. The panoramic stretch has no shade at all, and there is a bookshop-café at the end.
- Our pick
- Small children
Their site ↗
30 min
One of the few that works in high summer
Randonnée du Tumulus, Mauvezin
Just under nine kilometres, rated very easy, past an old mill and a disused railway. About a third is on tarmac. The reason to pick this one in August is shade — ash woodland and a stretch along the river, which is more cover than almost anything else in the Lomagne. Carry the written description; reports on the waymarking disagree.
- Shaded
Their site ↗
37 min
The hot-weather option
Chemin de Sirac, Cologne
Six kilometres in about an hour, rated very easy and running through woodland nearly all the way. The most shaded route in range, and the one to pick on a hot afternoon. Two longer loops start from the same market hall if you want the distance.
- Shaded
Their site ↗
38 min
All year
Le sentier karstique, La Romieu
Eight kilometres with over two hundred metres of climb, which is the steepest thing on this list — the Gers does not usually do steep. An interpretive trail on underground water, caves and cliffs, so there is something to read at intervals. Combines with the collegiate church and the cats for a full morning. Allow nearer three hours than the distance suggests.
Their site ↗
30 min to the start
GR65, Lectoure to La Romieu
About nineteen kilometres and five hours along the Santiago pilgrim route, if you want the half-day after all. The Lectoure–Condom stretch is one of only seven trail sections in France inscribed by UNESCO — the path itself is the listed thing, not just the churches on it.
- A whole day
No website · ask us
—
Topoguides and GPX
The FFRandonnée guide to the Gers covers thirty-eight routes, and the Bastides de Lomagne office gives away route sheets. Download the GPX before you come; signal is patchy out in the fields, and two of the walks above are worth having on a phone.
No website · ask us
I want to see something old
17 places
Bastides, two UNESCO churches, and a very good staircase
The Gers is thick with this and most of it is free and empty. Ordered by distance. Where a story is local lore rather than documented history, it says so.
Photo: Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
10 min
Year round
Saint Clar
Founded in the 1270s by a joint-lordship contract between the bishop of Lectoure and Edward I of England, in his capacity as Duke of Aquitaine. It has two arcaded squares, which most bastides do not.
No website · ask us
15 min
Year round, closed Mondays
Château de Gramont
A small state-run château with a good Renaissance staircase, free for under-18s. Carry small children rather than push them; buggies do not get into the rooms.
Photo: MOSSOT, CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Their site ↗
19 min
Worth checking before you go
Lachapelle
A fortified village grown around an 11th-century château, with the church built into the castle itself. Inside is a baroque interior fitted in 1776 — the same year this house was built, by a craftsman from Lectoure — and it looks far more like a small opera house than a village church. It is opened by volunteers, so ring ahead or ask us to.
- Book ahead
Photo: MOSSOT, CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
No website · ask us
30 min
Year round
Dunes
A bastide with a good arcaded square and a medieval tower everyone calls the Templars' tower. Its real name is the Tour de Turas, and the Templar connection is local lore rather than documented history — which does not make it a less pleasant place to have lunch.
No website · ask us
30 min
Year round; market Saturday mornings
Beaumont-de-Lomagne
Pierre de Fermat was born in this house and nobody can say what year: there are baptisms recorded for 1601 and 1605, his epitaph implies 1607, and the parish register has a hole in it exactly where the answer should be. The theorem he scribbled in a margin — that the margin was too narrow to hold his proof — took until 1995 to settle. The 14th-century oak halle he grew up under still holds the Saturday market.
- Our pick
Photo: Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Their site ↗
30 min
Year round
Auvillar
What made Auvillar rich in the 18th century was goose quills, cut here and shipped down the Garonne as far as Spain. The round market hall on the triangular square stands on twenty Doric columns, and in the raised core at its centre the original stone grain measures are still set into the floor, where the market inspector stood to settle arguments. Half an hour on foot covers it.
- Our pick
Photo: Calips, CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Their site ↗
30 min
April to November
Musée archéologique, Lectoure
In 1540 workmen rebuilding the cathedral choir dug up twenty Roman altars recording bulls sacrificed to Cybele, one dated to the exact day: 18 October 176. It is the most important collection of its kind anywhere — Rome itself holds about fifteen. It lives in the vaulted cellar under the town hall and takes half an hour.
- Our pick
- Good in the rain
Their site ↗
30 min
July to late September
L'Été photographique, Lectoure
A contemporary photography festival that has run every summer since 1990, and its trick is to hang the work in Lectoure's own buildings rather than a gallery: the grain hall, an old school, the cinema. The walk between the venues is half the pleasure.
Their site ↗
35 min
Open daily
Château de Lavardens
Seventeen rooms and seventeen different floors, each a separate geometric pattern laid in local brick and limestone, no two alike. Rebuilding began in the early 1600s and never finished — plague in 1653 drove two hundred workmen off the hill and the top storey was never built. It was nearly broken up as a stone quarry before being listed in 1961.
- Our pick
- Good in the rain
Photo: Jcb-caz-11, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Their site ↗
35 min
Year round; illustration festival in mid-July
Sarrant
Three hundred people wound in a spiral around the church, entered through a 14th-century tower gate, where the only shop is a bookshop that also does lunch. Since 2014 it has made itself the village of illustration, with painted street signs, artists' studios and a festival each July.
Photo: Asabengurtza, CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Their site ↗
38 min
Church year round; gardens April to October
La Romieu
One of the Plus Beaux Villages de France. The collegiate church is UNESCO-listed and holds one of the oldest double-helix staircases in Europe — two intertwined spirals, so two people can climb without meeting. Check the days before you drive out; the church and the gardens close on different ones.
- Our pick
Photo: MOSSOT, CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Their site ↗
45 min
Year round
Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Moissac
An inscription on one of the cloister pillars dates it to the year 1100 and names the abbot who built it — precision almost unheard of for a Romanesque cloister. Seventy-six capitals survive, forty-seven carved with narrative scenes. The church next door is free to walk into even if you skip the ticket. Allow an hour; the carving is the point and rushing it is pointless.
- Our pick
Photo: Rémih, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Their site ↗
45 min
Year round
Auch cathedral
Eighteen Renaissance windows by Arnaut de Moles, glazed between 1507 and 1513, and the only scheme of that scale to survive complete in France. If you see one church, this or Moissac.
- Our pick
No website · ask us
45 min
Closed for the winter
Musée des Amériques, Auch
The second-largest pre-Columbian collection in France, in a town of twenty thousand, because a tailor from Auch went to Chile in 1879, came home with crates, and left the lot to the town when he died. The masterpiece is a Mass of Saint Gregory made in Mexico in 1539 — a picture built entirely out of feathers. It is pottery behind glass, though: a stop bolted onto a day in Auch rather than a destination for young children.
- Good in the rain
Their site ↗
45 min
Year round, bar two weeks in January
Abbaye de Flaran
Founded in 1151 and the best-preserved Cistercian house in the southwest, which would be reason enough. But the monks' dormitory now hangs a private collection running from Rubens to Picasso by way of Monet, Cézanne and Rodin. It is the most-visited site in the Gers, which here still means you will mostly have the cloister to yourself.
- Our pick
- Good in the rain
Photo: Jcb-caz-11, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Their site ↗
50 min
Year round
Larressingle
Two hundred-odd people live inside a complete 13th-century circuit of walls, moat and drawbridge — built not by a warlord but by the abbots of Condom as their own fortified residence, which is why the keep sits where a church normally would. Everyone calls it the smallest fortified village in France; the official line is one of the smallest, and the difference is the honest one. Fifteen minutes to walk, and more craft shops than houses.
Photo: MathieuMD, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Their site ↗
about an hour
Mid-April to the start of November
Villa gallo-romaine de Séviac
A fourth-century Gallo-Roman country house with some six hundred square metres of floor mosaic lying exactly where it was laid, under a shelter built over it in 2018, plus its own bath suite and underfloor heating. The tourist office calls it the largest such survival in France; take that with salt, but the scale is not in doubt. Over an hour each way, so make a day of it with Condom.
- A whole day
Photo: Benjamin Bellamy, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Their site ↗
I want to drink something local
12 places
Armagnac, and where the differences lie
Armagnac is the reason to be here, but it is not the only thing made locally — there is Floc de Gascogne, sparkling wine by the traditional method, and now a brewery. Ordered by distance. Several need booking, and the ones that do tend to be the ones worth the trouble.
Photo: Sebleouf, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
25 min
Brasserie Callipyge, Mauvezin
Opened in June 2026 by a man who came out of wine — his family's Armagnac estate, then fifteen years selling it around the world — and is deliberately brewing hop-forward beer unlike anything else in the Gers. He cans rather than bottles, because hops degrade in light. Very new, so ring before driving out.
- Book ahead
Their site ↗
30 min
Domaine d'Embidoure, Réjaumont
The closest serious producer to the house. Thirty-six hectares run by three sisters, third generation, in the Haut-Armagnac appellation that accounts for only about five per cent of all Armagnac. Tasting is free and needs no appointment on weekdays, and there is a shop in Fleurance if you cannot face the lane.
- Our pick
- Free
Their site ↗
30 min
Château Arton, Lectoure
Organic and biodynamic, does a visit-with-lunch, and will privatise the estate for a group. The one that works most easily in English, and the best fit if you want the afternoon organised for you.
- English spoken
- Book ahead
Their site ↗
30 min
Domaine de Mirail, Lectoure
Family-run and more traditional. Go for the Armagnac rather than the experience.
No website · ask us
45 min
Château le Courréjot, Condom
The best free option, and unfussy about it. Good if you want a tasting without committing to a whole afternoon.
- Free
No website · ask us
45 min
Maison Aurian, Condom
Longer established and more polished. Pair it with Condom itself rather than driving out for the chai alone.
No website · ask us
45 min
Château Monluc, Saint-Puy
Home of the Pousse Rapière, an Armagnac-and-orange liqueur invented here in 1963 to a recipe kept secret ever since, drunk one part to seven with their sparkling wine — which they have made by the traditional method since 1953, unusual this far from Champagne. Cellar tours are free but need booking.
- Free
- Book ahead
Their site ↗
50 min
Château de Cassaigne
The residence of the bishops of Condom from the 13th century, with a 16th-century kitchen vaulted like a baker's oven and an ageing cellar in the old armoury behind walls two metres thick. Wander it yourself, or book the guided tour, which needs a minimum group.
- Book ahead
Their site ↗
about an hour
Domaine de Herrebouc, Saint-Jean-Poutge
Eighteen hectares above the Baïse, organic since 2010 and biodynamic since 2020. Tastings run to eight or ten wines and are capped at eight people, so book well ahead — and do not turn up with twelve.
- Book ahead
Their site ↗
about an hour
Cellar visits on weekdays
Maison Gelas, Vic-Fezensac
A Bas-Armagnac house founded in 1865, still running tours of its century-old chais that take in the still room and the work of the distiller, cellar master and cooper. The shop alongside carries over eight hundred references, easily the deepest selection within an hour. Book; it is not a walk-in.
- Our pick
- Book ahead
Their site ↗
about an hour
Domaine Chiroulet, Larroque-sur-l'Osse
Farmed by the same family since 1893, on some of the highest ground in Gascony, facing south towards the Pyrenees. The cellar door is open most days but proper tours are aimed at groups and need arranging — pitched more at buyers than at passing visitors.
- Book ahead
Their site ↗
about an hour and a quarter
Domaine de Pellehaut, Montréal-du-Gers
The same family for three centuries, on an 18th-century château estate on the edge of the Bas-Armagnac. There is a still standing in the tasting room, which makes the explanation of distillation a good deal less abstract. A long way, and only worth it if you are already heading west.
Their site ↗
I want to be on the water or on a bike
13 places
Water, wheels, a balloon and a very small aeroplane
Two things to know before you set off, both of which have ruined somebody's afternoon. Lac de Thoux is no longer open for public swimming — it was privatised and the beach now belongs to the campsite. At Lac des 3 Vallées the pools and slides are for residents only, though the lake itself is public bathing water and unsupervised.
Photo: Traumrune, CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
3 min
Summer
Kayak, paddleboard and sailing, Saint Clar lake
Hired on site at the leisure lake. Nothing serious, and that is the point — it fills an afternoon without anybody having to drive.
- Our pick
- Small children
No website · ask us
10 min
All year, by appointment
Riding, Saint Clar
A riding farm five hundred metres below the village, with an indoor school and thirty boxes. Hourly hacks, led pony walks of about three quarters of an hour for small children, half-days, full-day rides with a picnic for three or more, and horse-drawn carriage outings for up to five. Everything is by appointment and there are no walk-ups; ring well ahead in August.
- Small children
- Book ahead
Their site ↗
Starts at the bastide
All year
Entre Arratz et Auroue, by electric bike
A thirty-kilometre loop from Saint Clar's own market square, entirely on quiet D-roads rather than tracks, taking in L'Isle-Bouzon, Magnas and the perched villages of Tournecoupe and Avezan. It passes back through Saint Clar at the eighteen-kilometre mark, so a fading group can stop there. It is not waymarked — download the route before you set off.
Their site ↗
16 min
Playable all year
Golf de Fleurance
Nine holes around an 18th-century half-timbered farmhouse, with a second set of tees on the way back so it plays as a full eighteen. Streams, oak and ash, and rolling ground. It has been ranked among the better nine-hole courses in France, and the club has no website of its own.
Their site ↗
16 min
One covered court all year
Tennis and padel, Fleurance
Three outdoor courts and one covered, plus padel and pétanque, in the parkland by the lake. The club sells a summer card for visitors rather than requiring membership, which is the only reason this is worth listing — confirm the terms when you ring.
Their site ↗
30 min
All year; early morning or late afternoon, weather permitting
Microlight flights, Lectoure
Discovery flights of thirty to sixty minutes in an enclosed-cabin microlight over the Lomagne, bookable online. One passenger at a time, so a family goes up in relays. Cheaper and far more available than the balloon, and much the same view — but it is a small aircraft with an engine, not a silent drift at dawn.
- Book ahead
Their site ↗
16–30 min
All year, book by phone
Electric bike hire, Lectoure and Fleurance
The tourist office hires electric mountain bikes from both towns, with a range comfortably over sixty kilometres, and there are more than three hundred kilometres of waymarked off-road circuits to use them on. Riders must be at least 1m40, which rules out the younger children.
- Book ahead
Their site ↗
30 min to the launch field
May to September
Hot air balloon over the Gers
Evening flights at the good hour, champagne on landing. One caveat worth knowing before anyone gets excited: the local operator flies four adults per basket, so a full house of twelve cannot go up together.
- Our pick
- Book ahead
No website · ask us
30 min
Summer only
Piscine municipale, Mauvezin
A heated open-air pool with a main basin, a toddler pool and a slide, on grass behind the village hall. It is a village pool and nothing more, but it is heated, it has a slide, and it is rarely busy — which on a hot afternoon is the whole argument.
- Small children
Their site ↗
45 min
July and August
Lac de Castéra-Verduzan
One of only eight lakes in the Gers declared as official bathing water, and currently classified Excellent. Worth knowing precisely because the two nearest lakes are not what they appear.
No website · ask us
50 min
July and August
Canoeing on the Baïse, Beaucaire
Guided half-day descents with a minibus back. The seven-kilometre run to Valence-sur-Baïse includes a chute down a weir, which is the part children talk about afterwards. The river is dammed every couple of kilometres so the water is flat, and the banks are well shaded — which matters in August. You must be able to swim, and wear shoes that stay on.
- Shaded
- Book ahead
Their site ↗
50 min
Daily hire in July and August
Sailing club, Lac de Thoux Saint-Cricq
The sailing club is an association open to anyone, and since the privatisation it is the only way a non-camper gets onto this lake at all. Paddleboards, kayaks, pedalos, dinghies, catamarans and windsurfers by the hour, buoyancy aids included, dogs allowed in the boats. There is also a walking loop and a mountain-bike circuit round the lake.
Their site ↗
45 min
All year
Golf d'Auch Embats
The full eighteen if Fleurance's nine will not do, laid out through the valleys south-west of Auch with the Pyrenees on the horizon on a clear day. Reduced rates from eight players, which is relevant if half the house plays.
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Photo: Krzysztof Golik, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source