On my brief tour into the Languedoc I had one overnight stay, by the canal at Castelnaudary. This is a rather rundown town between Carcassonne and Toulouse, all three places rivals in producing a dish called cassoulet, a stew of white kidney beans with, variously, confit of duck or goose, ham, sausage and pork. One town might include chicken, heresy to the other two places. In the evening I ate cassoulet at a restaurant called La Belle Epoque and found that they had used confit de canard, Toulouse sausage and strips of belly pork. That's pretty much how I make it myself, though the confit is from a can and I prefer thinner chipolata sausages.
Apart from two nights in Montpellier for my naturalization interview, this one night constitutes my vacation for 2022. It's not been an easy year.
Une très belle photo, un peu nostalgique pour moi qui suis née à Montauban et qui a visité Castelnaudary plusieurs fois. C’est amusant cette petite querelle à propos du meilleur Cassoulet 😄
It's a beautiful scene with the boats under the bridge. I'm not too keen on Cassoulet - too many beans if I remember correctly! Does your naturalisation interview mean that you can speak a bit of French?
@busylady Yes, French language to level B1 is needed for naturalisation by marriage or decree, probably the standard of a good pass at O-Level (if they still do O-Levels!). I passed the B2 last year and hope to take the C1 in December 2023. I'm sure C2, essentially speaking like a native, will be beyond me. I'm not a natural linguist and have had to work hard at this. My wife speaks 7 languages, including French, English & German fluently and without accent. I tell people that if she went into a sushi bar she would come out speaking Japanese.
