13-15 June Lunch in Narbonne

We have good friends who have moved from Ceret to Montpellier, and we were keen to catch up with them again. We decided to meet for lunch at the halfway point, Narbonne. Given we'd never stopped there despite having driven past it perhaps half a dozen times, we took the opportunity to spend a night there for a quick exploration.

On arrival in Narbonne, finding our room was easy, finding a parking spot less so, but with Karen on foot scouting she found one and I was able to whip the car around the corner and grab it before somebody else did. Into the old centre through the wind (it's always windy in Narbonne - we checked with a few of the locals later) and to the main square where we stopped for a morning coffee.

Narbonne has a slightly sad history. It was once the main base for Rome outside Italy, and a major  centre of trade. Almost nothing remains of Roman building now however - just a small piece of the main Roman road from Rome to Spain, the Via Domitia, discovered under the main square in 1997, and the Horreum which had been a warehouse and market facility. It was lovely for us to see the Via Domitia, as we have visited its southernmost point on the crest of the Pyrenees near us. Once the Romans had faded away, Narbonne became a major trade and religious centre, until the Aude began to silt up and both the trade and the bishop moved out, leaving a partly-built cathedral. Meanwhile the Roman buildings had been almost totally plundered for building materials. Nowadays it is a pleasant, though windy, city of only 52,000 people.

The main square from the former Bishop's Palace.
That's a piece of the Via Domitia 2000-year-old Roman road at centre.

The coffee was most pleasant, sitting watching the world go by. The comparison to the Spanish border town of La Jonquera was interesting. Without the slightest doubt, the French are vastly more wealthy. In La Jonquera the locals are dressed very much down-market, and are a different shape and size - about 150cm and stocky, versus maybe 5cm taller and slimmer in Narbonne.

We'd chosen a little Italian restaurant for lunch. It turned out to be a one-man band, the owner also being the waiter, chef, and bottle washer. It turned out to be excellent, a nice little find. Catching up with our friends was good, and after lunch we had a bit of a look around Narbonne together before they headed back home. We struck lucky at the cathedral, with an organist giving an impromptu recital while we were there.

There must be something in the water...

It had been a properly hot day - our first this year despite it already being mid-June. By evening we were pretty tired, and chose to retire a little earlier than normal.

Next day we started by visiting the market hall, a very attractive building. Having a coffee there was fun. We chatted for a while with a local Frenchman whose place we had taken at the bar of a drink-and-go cafe inside the market. It brought home how little we manage to speak French with French in Ceret. Perhaps there are just too many foreigners, or maybe we just try harder away from our French home. Either way, we must do something about it as we do enjoy it. The more we talk, the better we get and the easier it becomes.

The bishop's palace proved very interesting, as it had several good exhibitions of art, including a very good one of "oriental art", meaning mainly North African. It was beautifully curated in a Cordoba-Mosque-like setting.

North African scenes in a lovely setting

Lunch was another good find. The menu de jour at a different restaurant was excellent, and again the service was very good. In particular the bread, which arrived in a little paper bag instead of the normal wicker basket, was super tasty. It might seem surprising to many, but there is a big range in French baguettes. They can be noticeably different in flavour, crust, dryness, chewiness, colour and more. We've become experts over the last 7 years! Our favourite would be the flavour of  this Narbonne baguette, add a good golden crunchy crust (but not too viciously dry!) and the chewiness of the croquise from Fournil San Ferreol in Ceret.

A pretty good salad (entree) for the menu du jour

A last few places to visit in the town, including the Horreum and the cathedral treasury, and we were on our way home. The latter was notable for amazing acoustics - a clap when stood dead centre echoed perhaps 5 times, and any conversation could be heard from anywhere else in the room.

Interesting stonework inside the underground Horreum

We tried to visit a chocolaterie  which offers mini-tours and tasting, but most unusually we were given a very poor welcome, I guess because it was near closing time. We were just ignored. Unusual for France, and given our reception we just jumped back in the car and left, A very blustery drive back home.

Anywhere else it is a marche en plein air (market in open air), here it is de plein vent (in full wind)!