Food in Provence (and elsewhere)

Despite the gloomy forecasts, the sky looks promising on Saturday morning but we set out to follow the Green Guide walking tour with rain gear just in case. Narbonne proves to be pretty compact and we’ve covered most of the tour, including an interesting time in the Horreum—no, not a horror museum, but the remains of a Roman warehouse—by late morning. Which proves to be a blessing when we reach Les Halles for lunch. Pretty much all of the tables indoors are reserved or occupied but I’ve spotted some tables outside and we find a free one at what proves to be Chez Bébelle, the key lunchtime attraction. Being outside we don’t see the ordering by megaphone or the packages of meat flying over the crowds but we do catch this key sight after finishing our lunch.

We return to the main square to visit the archbishop’s palace and the cathedral and start by climbing the stairs (142 or 162, certainly not the 62 as announced on the panel) to the top of the main Gilles-Aycelin tower for an impressive view over the city. After a tour round the new palace and art gallery (yet more stairs!) we visit the cloisters and enter the cathedral (only the choir part was completed, but it’s high and impressive nevertheless) to see a scout tossing tea lights to another who is placing them round the walls. It turns out that there is going to be a candlelit concert this evening followed by a procession round the cloisters. We catch the end of the concert after our dinner at Chez Lulu, have a front-row view as a group of nuns sing hymns in the candlelight and then a last look around inside as the organist is playing a few encores.

The rain held off on Saturday but we wake to a downpour on Sunday morning. Over breakfast we decide we can’t miss the chance to visit the *** Abbaye de Fontfroide, especially as I manage to reserve a table at the well recommended restaurant there. We drive through showers but the sky is clear as we arrive. Nevertheless, visitors are being recommended to see the gardens first as the heavens are expected to open. We follow the recommendation but, if anything, the sky is clearing and there is bright sunshine as we start to look around the abbey proper. It was bought (at auction) in 1908 by Gustave Fayet after the monks left and various of his paintings of the abbey and grounds are dotted around in an exhibition to mark the centenary of his death.

As the sky is a clear blue after lunch, we head up to the cross at the top of a hill nearby. Then head back to Cap d’Agde where we are driven off the balcony by the much predicted but much delayed rain.