You may have noticed that today’s article came in a little later than usual—eight hours late, to be exact. That’s because today’s installment is the first ever published while Humiblog is on the road. Ever since I heard that France was getting ready to release a premium cigar made entirely of French grown leaf, I resolved that I would have to witness this momentous affair myself. Today, I’m at the start of a 900km trip that will take me from Paris to a small fortified town called Navarrenx, near the Spanish-French border, the birth place of the cigar they named the Navarre.

It turns out that in 1995, following the dissolution of the tobacco monopoly by the company now known as Altadis, a business man by the name of Noël Labourdette, himself a cigar enthusiast, decided to attempt what at the time seemed like a crazy idea: he would produce premium tobacco in a southern most region in France that is already well known for its tobacco, and produce a French puro, religiously adhering to the Cuban cigar tradition.

Well, if you know anything about the French, you will know that passion and tradition are not simply marketing ploys. When they say they want to produce a ‘Cuban’ cigar, they both mean it and believe it can be done, with lots of effort and zealous dedication; and so earlier this spring, nearly ten years later, their adventure culminated with the birth of the Navarre Robusto, a cigar made from their 2003 harvest. Following what has been reported to be a beautiful 2005 season for wrapper leaf, they are expected to release another vitola later in the year—a Navarre Esplendido.

I don’t need to tell you that I’m pretty excited to make this trip and hope to bring out all my findings, including a review of their first Navarre in the weeks to come. Cheers!