Located on the Med, pretty Narbonne city is about an hour’s drive from Castelnaudary – and we’d never been there. So we filled up with petrol and headed east in our little Renault Twingo in search of some different scenery and perhaps a sea breeze.
It was well after noon by the time we’d found a good spot in the Cathedral parking lot and entered Les Halles fresh market. Though most of the stalls were already closed and there was much sloshing of water underfoot, we did find something quite special: a bar and restaurant called Chez Bebelle.
Chez Bebelle’s food comes from the market’s “meat artisans” and is served by an upbeat staff in red outfits. This being another stinking hot day, all I wanted for lunch was a salad – but nothing like that was on the menu. So I fiddled with a charcuterie platter while Roy polished off a generous helping of beef steak tartare; cheval (horse-meat) was the other option.
Sightseeing loses its appeal in this sort of heat. But we had to at least see the Canal de la Robine, a side-branch of the Canal du Midi that was built around 1686 to connect the Midi with Narbonne and Port la Nouvelle.
Many of the moored boats looked not to have moved for some time. Astonishingly, we again saw our walking couple from the tow path from Port-Lauragais to Castelnaudary, sitting on a bench in the port. They’d hired a car, explained M. Riches, and were spending four nights at a chambres-d’hôtes in nearby Carcassonne.
After the necessary nagging on my part – Roy does not love beaches – our next stop was Narbonne Plage, about a 20-minute drive from the city. My husband took one look at the Saharan expanse of scalding sand shimmering in the heat, and immediately sought shelter at a bar-restaurant.
I dipped a toe into the Med and took the obligatory selfie, but have to admit that I wasn’t far behind Roy in his quest for a shandy.
On the way home, we briefly popped in at Carcassonne port and found it surprisingly quiet. Another rapidly warming pression (moi) and panaché (lui) on the pavement near Le Terminus, and we’d had enough of the heat.
Happily, it was just 20 minutes by car back to Castelnaudary for a bottle of icy rosé and a cold salmon dinner on board our floating home-sweet-home.
