Stéphane Pécal is a fine baker. He shows up at the farmers' night markets where local producers cook for you whatever they've grown or slaughtered, hours before the picnickers to fire up the stove for his bread baking. Pastries from the patissier at his Castelnau bakery are also on sale. Some of them are the result of failure, he says.

He likes a good mistake. Tarte Tatin, he says, was the result of a regular apple tart being dropped on the floor and replaced in its baking tin upside down. (Dept. of Health & Safety, are you listening?) Crème Chantilly was a distracted cook overbeating his cream. Mayonnaise? Mistake. How to get rid of too many egg yolks. The mistake, according to Pécal, is having such a bad cooking scheme you're landed with an overdose of egg yolks in the first place. He's a hard man.

His own particular mistake was with his walnut tarts, a regional specialty that he pulls off particularly well. He'd gone "off-recipe" and spread a layer of walnuts over a baked pastry case, dousing them with a drift of sugar then shoving it into the oven. It had been a good party the night before and he forgot that a proper walnut tart has a caramel coating. And mere spoonfuls of sugar don't automatically turn themselves into caramel. So out came a crunchy, crispy, glassy affair, no caramel about it. What did he do? You don't throw good ingredients away, even if you've ruined them. He simply used it as a base for the proper walnut confection which he spooned over the top. Result: no soggy pastry as can emerge under the caramel-nut mass. This week's visitors, of which there have been 16 altogether, are probably as tired of duck confits, enchauds of pork, roast haunches of ham and any other salted foods as I am. Their assessment of the walnut tart? Sublime. Pécal's view? Mistakes can lead to improvements.

Ducks consumed so far: This week, 2 more duck confits - to add to the 2 pots of duck rillettes; 5 portions of duck confit; 1 helping duck cassoulet; 2 home-made terrines of foie gras; 2 servings of foie gras brulée from Le Vieux Logis; copious slices duck salami; 1 large Quiche au Confit; 2 more portions of duck confit; 3 plates of duck gésiers (confited gizzards - no, they're very nice indeed); copious spoonfuls of duck fat in the Pommes Sarladaises. Another foie gras brulée from Le Vieux Logis as part of yet another spectacular 'tapas' luncheon.  Left foot growing webs between the toes...Time to head back to DC...