May 3, 2024
Fanjeaux finished, we made our way to Castelnaudary, the town where Cassoulet (pronounced kass-oo-lay) was invented with a goal of eating lunch at one of the "best" (according to the guidebook) cassoulet restaurants in town.
First, cassoulet - a hearty peasant stew made with white beans and a variety of meats including duck and sausage. In restaurants, it is served in individual glazed earthenware bowls that have way more food in them than most people can eat. (Dave and Dale are known exceptions, however.)
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| cassoulet - white beans, garlic, and 3 meats served in a "cassole" |
Having arrived before restaurants open at noon, we had time to look around town. As we parked near the church, that was our first stop.
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| Eglise Saint Michel |
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| The bell tower is built right over the road we drove through to get here, |
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| luckily it's a one way road as the red sign with a horizontal white line means No Entry. |
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| Saint Michel |
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| organ loft of Saint Michel |
We next made our way down to the Canal du Midi via a street that is a good example of how cities pollard their plane trees (platanes). Pollarding is a way of pruning the upper branches of a tree to restrict its growth and produce dense foliage and branching at the top. It is used primarily to produce shade in the summer. Napoleon had plane trees planted along French roads to shade his troops as they marched.
street lined with pollarded plane trees
Spring is a particularly ugly time of year for pollarded trees. 
looking back at the church from the back side
At Castelnaudary, the Canal du Midi is a wide basin allowing for many houseboats to tie up. Traveling the Canal du Midi is a popular way to cross southern France, tying up at towns and villages along the way to explore, find a cafe or restaurant, or replenish supplies. It also seems to be a center where one can rent a houseboat. We've learned that in order to use the self-service locks all along the canal, one must have taken some training, but after that, the full length of the canal is open to you. Seems like a lovely way to see the south of France.
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| We think this place across the canal sells and/or rents houseboats |
By now it almost noon and time to find our chosen restaurant, L'Escapade.
L'Escapade Restaurant - supposedly the best place to get cassoulet in Castelnaudary
We had figured that this being Friday noon during low tourist season, reservations would not be necessary. Wrong! We were told that we would need to make reservations a week ahead of time. Being rated highly in a guide book is clearly good for business! So now we need a new plan.
A short drive away and a convenient parking space brought us to L'Hotel de France where they can seat us in their restaurant and there are convenient toilets.
L'Hotel de France
Our cassoulet is yummy and generous and the wait staff is helpful and attentive, even packing up our leftovers to take home.
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| Janis and Clark shared a cassoulet - so theirs came in a larger casserole which kind of defeated the purpose of SHARING one serving. Oh, well. Leftovers are good too. |
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| Lynn serving herself - These are each single servings. |
Now to head the long way back to Le Cazal, via Saint Papoul, Saissac, and Revel.
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| Our trip home started in the opposite direction of Le Cazal. |
Saint Papoul has a 1200 year old church and abbey which we decided not to visit as we still have three more stops before heading home. Could be interesting on another visit.
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| A brief peek through the cloister gate is all we saw of this abbey. Hopefully, another day. |
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| The gate we peered through from the spacious plaza in front of the abbey |
Next stop, Saissac, clinging to its hillside.
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| No hidden treasure in these two towers. |
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| Enough is left of this tower to house the museum of old jobs |
This town would be interesting to come back to explore more. We really only looked in from the street view and didn't visit any of the historic monuments.
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| This mostly 15th century ruined castle sits on a rock outcropping below the main city. |
On our way to Revel, we stopped briefly at the dam end of the Lac de Saint-Ferréol, a man-made lake created in the 17th century that supplies water to the Canal du Midi.
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| Lac de Saint-Ferréol |
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| The earthen dam was finished in 1671, an impressive feat of civil engineering for the time. |
Onward to our last stop, the town of Revel, built as a bastide in 1342, one of the last bastides to be built in France. Like all bastides, this town is set up an a square grid of streets with arcaded galleries on the buildings that surround the central market square.
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| map of central Revel. Notice the grid layout of the streets around the central square. The orange ring road traces the defensive walls of the city. |
The central market is covered and topped with an unusual cupola and clock, features added in 1834, after fire destroyed the original covered market. Saturday markets fill the square with food and clothing stalls.
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| The tourist office is the ground floor of the central building |
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As usual, the arcaded buildings surrounding the market square are both old and picturesque, worthy of a stroll around the square.
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| I love the polychrome colors of these arcaded buildings. |
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| There are also many of what we would call Tudor-style buildings |
If you want to know more about Revel, this blog post has great photos and good description: https://www.thewonderingenglishman.com/post/rev%C3%A8l-france-a-market-town-in-the-south-of-france-that-comes-alive-on-saturday
Dinner tonight is extended aperos on the patio. No one is very hungry after the cassoulet we had for lunch. Perfect way to end the day.
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