Pizza, fisticuffs and the drunken sailor; Bill, Winnie and Gretige Henriette; antiques and anchovies; back to Chez David

 Castelnaudary – or simply “Castel” to locals or wannabe-locals – is one of the Canal du Midi’s prettiest ports.  We had a great first visit in 2017; click here to read all about that.

This time, we felt like old hands. For our first night’s dinner,  we walked around the Grand Bassin under glowering skies and crossed the bridge to the pizzeria near the lock – Pizzeria De l’Écluse.

Enthusiastic online reviews didn’t indicate just how casual it was; otherwise, I would have brought my own glass.

On the site of what used to be a service station, three or four guys laboured in a small ex-office, now equipped with a wood fire, churning out excellent pizzas. You could sit in the neat alfresco area, but most people placed their order online or by phone and collected.

So busy was it that we waited 45 minutes for our pizzas, which would have spent just two minutes in the fiery oven, and had almost finished our bottle of rosé by the time they were ready.

Entertainment came in the form of a fight: on one side the resident of a flat on the opposite side of the road; on the other, a truck-driver who’d come for his pizza and left his engine running, plus the owner of the pizza business. Mr Resident had enough: “J’en ai marre!” (I’m fed up with this!), “Va te faire foutre!” (Get f%$&!-ed} and “Connard! Connard!” (Bastard! Bastard!)

Walking back along the edge of the basin past the Le Boat boat-hire depot and a small dry-dock, we heard the strains of “What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor?” coming from a moored yacht, so naturally stopped and joined in. They were French, the singer reading the words off his tablet; I saw them sailing off peacefully the next morning, direction Bordeaux.

 Antiquities and Anchovies 

I wanted to ask Bill and Winnie Post about their exceptional old barge, Gretige Henriette,  when I first met them in the port of Moissac, a couple of years ago. Then we went off somewhere, and by the time we returned they had left. Now, I had them cornered in Castelnaudary: they were halfway through the difficult and dirty task of re-caulking the original 1932 teak deck.

Just as Roy and I were about to say our goodbyes, a man called Jacques – owner of an antiquities and bric-a-brac business located right opposite their mooring, invited himself aboard for lunch. He would come in 15 minutes time, he promised, once he’d had a wash. He would bring anchovies and a bottle of red. Of course we had to stay!

At first, he didn’t want to shake Roy’s hand because his own was still dirty. But when Roy insisted, he said with approval: “Les mains des travailleurs ne sont jamais sales” – which translates as : The hands of working men are never dirty. (Honest toil, and all that.)

So Winnie dashed off to boulangerie patisserie Le Diablotin for a baguette tradition, and I popped down to Karanja for a bottle of rosé and a platter of pâte en croute, chicken rillettes and olives.

Then ensued a fascinating conversation, mostly in French. (Jacques speaks no English, has a strong Southern accent and takes no prisoners. We did our best to keep up.)

As far as I could make out, he was full of nostalgic truisms about the supportiveness of country communities like the one he grew up in, but also at pains to show us how a restaurateur should open a wine bottle and present the cork in a circle of the aluminium – nowadays often plastic, sadly – that surrounds the top of the bottle. (Apparently, Jacques is the unofficial mayor of the port, and it is a good idea to be his friend. He has a wife, but she has chosen to live in Moissac.)

Oy, Ratty! This large rodent is a cupoy, always found around water. They were introduced from Argentina some time ago and can be a bit of a pest, apparently.

Cassoulet Chez David

Next evening, after an apéro on Bill and Winnie’s Gretige Henriette, along with Serge and Vanessa Ribes,  Roy and I walked up to Chez David for dinner.

It was as good as the first time, back in 2017. My creature of habit once again had the cassoulet formule (€28): green salad, cassoulet and flan de catalane. (Click here for more on David and his great cassoulet.) I had some incredibly garlicky mussels from Spain, followed by rack of lamb with roast garlic, rice and some yummy concoction of layered Mediterranean vegetables.

(I then misbehaved by staying up far too late to watch the 1936 film Little Lord Fauntleroy on YouTube – inspired by wine with dinner and the fact that Roy has been suffering from a touch of gout, just like Little Lord Fauntleroy’s granddad – and got to bed far later than was good for me.)

Watch out for my next post! – all about Bill, Winnie and their magnificent old barge Gretige Henriette.