About Us

Welcome to Chez Artagnan (Est.1820), your serene retreat nestled in the sun-drenched Gers countryside near Mirande.

Our gîte is a lovingly restored rural escape, perfect for guests seeking calm, character, and connection. With sunlit rooms, a private garden, and easy access to local markets and medieval villages, Chez Artagnan blends rustic charm with modern comfort.

You have the complete gite, put this somewhere else to yourselves with separate access, private parking, free wifi.

Add a bit about bees, we have plans to get 2 colonies in the spring of 2026 with the objective to make raw honey for our family and guests.  a page for this, maybe on the blog?  hives far from the house

plans to hold photography classes for all levels, throughout the year, including a one day cyanotype workshop where visitors can take away their prints.

our aims to restore the land, plant wild flowers, flowing trees, completely organic, with no chemical fertilisers, we honour the lagacy of the place, reviving old traditions, connecting guests to the terroir.

The house was built in 1820 by the Artagnan family, the large oak tree in the corner of the plot was planted at that time.  The house is a typical Gascon farm house, what was farm used for? animals?

The house remained in the Artagnan family until about 2005? where it was bought by a builder that started a 20 year update and renovation program.  At this time various rooms were converted suitable for operating as an independant gite.

Main House

In 2025 the current owner took over the property . . .

more to come.

Cycling on my own pilgrimage to Santiago in the autumn of 2023, I fell in love with the pace of life, the rolling hills of Gers.

Nestled in the heart of Gers, one of France’s most unspoiled rural regions, Chez Artagnan offers guests a quiet escape rooted in nature, tradition, and sustainable living.

Known as the “Tuscany of France,” the region boasts gentle hills, ancient bastide towns, and vibrant weekly markets. With pure air, light traffic, and a pace of life guided by the land, Gers is ideal for walking, cycling, and reconnecting with nature.

At Chez Artagnan, we’ve restored our traditional Gascon farmhouse with great care. The property is home to:

• Active permaculture gardens, supplying herbs, fruits, and flowers
• A growing apiary, where guests can learn about bees and local honey
• Thoughtful architecture blending old stone, timber beams, and modern comforts
• A philosophy of low-impact living without sacrificing hospitality

Guests are welcome to explore the land, enjoy seasonal produce, or simply relax with a book under the fig tree (once I’ve planted it!).  And for those curious, we’re happy to share our approach to pollinator-friendly gardening.

In the latter half of 2025 our plan is to embark on a new adventure and to buy beehives and the tools we will need to look after two colonies of honey bees.  It will probably be too late in the season to get the bees themselves as they will need to have collected enough honey for them to last through the winter.

In early spring of 2026, we will install two nuclei colonies and hopefully have a little golden honey to share in the summer months.  In the Gascon countryside, honey isn’t just sweet—it’s seasonal and floral, and often produced just down the road.

🐝 Meet the Bees at Chez Artagnan >  Curious about the buzz behind our honey?  Come meet our gentle Buckfast bees and learn how a hive works—from queen to worker to drone.  You’ll see the flowers they forage, the wax they build, and the golden treasure they create.

We provide protective veils and a calm, respectful approach—perfect for curious guests of all ages. Depending on the season, you might even spot the queen or taste honey straight from the comb!

Our desire is to produce quality raw honey, that is honey as nature intended: unheated, unfiltered, and bursting with local pollen, enzymes, antioxidants and trace minerals.  It’s harvested from the hive, gently strained, and bottled without processing—so it may crystallize over time, which is actually a good sign!

Over the centuries, raw honey has been treasured not just as a sweetener, but as a natural medicine chest in a jar.  It’s been used to Soothe sore throats and coughs, support digestion and gut health, Heal wounds and burns thanks to its antibacterial properties and importantly, to Boost immunity with its natural polyphenols and bee pollen.

Modern science now confirms what generations have known: raw honey contains compounds that may protect the heart, calm inflammation, and even support brain health.  A spoonful a day isn’t just delicious—it’s a tradition of well-being passed down through time.

some in a blog?

offer pure beeswax candles, honey with honeycomb

Once the gite is up and running, we plan to hold workshops for interested guests in the ancient art of cyanotypes.  This process was invented by Sir John Herschel in 1842.  He developed it as a simple, low-cost method for copying notes and diagrams—producing those iconic white-on-blue images using iron salts and sunlight.

But the true pioneer who brought cyanotypes into the artistic and scientific spotlight was Anna Atkins.  Just a year after Herschel’s invention, she used the process to create Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions—the first book ever illustrated with photographs. Her delicate, ghostly prints of seaweed are now legendary, blending botany, art, and early photography in a way that was centuries ahead of its time.

Suits all age groups, make your own prints to take home!

You do not need to bring a camera.

🔍 What Is the Scheimpflug Principle?

In standard photography, the lens plane, film plane, and subject plane are all parallel. But with large format cameras, you can tilt or swing the lens or film standard, changing the angle of the plane of focus.

According to the Scheimpflug Principle:

> When the lens plane, film plane, and subject plane all intersect at a common line, the entire subject plane can be brought into sharp focus—even if it’s not parallel to the film.

This is especially useful when:

• Photographing a landscape where you want both the foreground flower and distant mountain in focus
• Shooting a tabletop still life from an angle
• Creating selective focus effects (like miniaturization or dreamy blur)

🛠️ How It Works in Practice

• Tilt: Adjusts the lens forward or backward (top to bottom), changing vertical focus
• Swing: Rotates the lens left or right, affecting horizontal focus
• Rise/Fall & Shift: Control framing and perspective without tilting the plane of focus

You compose and focus on the ground glass, often under a dark cloth, watching how the focus plane slices through your scene like a blade of clarity.

Understanding Depth-of-Field in Photography

Take your photography to a new level (needs a camera not a phone)

understand how to get a correctly exposed sharp photograph using shutter speed, aperture and ISO settings, and the tradeoffs a photographer has to make.