Madame Murats, Pomarède

Following our morning walk we had built up an appetite, which is just as well, as our next stop was Madame Murat’s restaurant for lunch, located in a village next door to Mary’s. This restaurant has been run by six generations of women. It is currently run by Sylvie and her husband Phillipe. Madam Murat is still with us but isn’t mobile enough to come to the restaurant anymore. Mary wrote a book about the history of this restaurant and the family called “Lunch at Madame Murat’s”, and also did a television series to celebrate their 100 years anniversary.

Mary was welcomed most warmly by the family and we had a wonderful time. We arrived at noon and the place was soon full of predominantly locals. The restaurant traditionally served workers who, in France, used to get 2 hours for lunch. The food is hearty and delicious.

For our lunch we started with vegetable soup, then some charcuterie, followed by roast pork served with frites and peas with lardons - it was all delicious. Then there was a cheese course. The cheese used to be presented on a large board and would be passed from table to table. That tradition has stopped because when Mary brought in a group (of Australians) a number of years ago, they assumed this large platter of cheese was just for them and wrapped the cheese up and put it in their bags! Can you believe it - poor Mary was mortified. So now each table gets smaller pieces of cheese. We were served Cantale (a local regional cheese), Camembert and a Catalan Thome. They were all delicious. Then we had dessert. There were several to choose from:- A pear and chocolate gateaux, apple pie, crème brûlée, pannacotta with berries and ice-cream, and everyone was very happy with their choice. We finished off the meal with a shot of Eau de Vie (plum flavour) which is a bit like rocket fuel!

After lunch we walked through the forest back to Mary’s place (to walk off our lunch!) and then we were off to Cahors.Read more