La Guingette *

I may have talked about Sundays on the roof terrace here in Agde, I know I’ve talked about Sundays long ago when I was a child and what difficult days they sometimes were but now I must tell you that I have discovered the perfect, the best, the only way to spend Sunday and that is at La Guingette – a riverside cafe on the canal at the bend of the Herault (just off the road to Marseillan)

 How do I know about this wonderful place? Alan and Nira of course! What is more on our wild riverside walk to La Guingette (no roads for us) we met Nira en route on her bicycle, and we had café together when we arrived. A wonderful conversation ensued about women who enjoy spending time alone and of course about books – in particular Margaret Forster’s Good Wives – which Nira has kindly loaned us and which I am very much looking forward to reading

La Guingette is my kind of place, where nothing quite matches but the whole is a beautifully stitched quilt. The profusion of pot plants: rubber, avocado, bougainvillea, trailing spider plants, agapanthus and geraniums, blur the café’s edges with the liquid green of the water and the tracery of the plane trees overhead. Here, at tables set on a rough floor of gravel and dried leaves, beneath canopies of bamboo and a myriad of umbrellas you can enjoy a bottle of chilled rose and a delicious Roquefort salad, with aioli, (umm) and all at a leisurely pace – perfect for Sundays and we find, perfect for people -watching as the families arrive for lunch and the café gradually fills with the murmur of conversations.

Being at La Guingette remided me so much of the travellers haunts I frequented with John in India and Sri Lanka in the early eighties: makeshift huts, bamboo ceilings, pot plants, palms, and seas, rivers or mountains all within reach. Old hippie that I am, I was in my element at La Guingette and I am already planing to return  to spend my soon to be celebrated birthday there.

 For the romantically inclined there are bouquets and single roses for sale – it’s a romantic kind of place. It’s a mix of Renoir, in all its vibrant colour and its couples dancing by the waterside, which I’m told happens, and wait for it!  Dennis Quaid (a favourite of mine)  in The Big Easy – well, there is live music here sometimes and as we walked in I definitely heard the strains of the accordion played in that very soulful French/ Louisiana way. I hope there’s dancing on my birthday!

*A Guinguette is a popular drinking establishments in the suburbs of Paris and other cities in France. Ginguettes might also serve as restaurants and, often, as dance venues. The origin of the term comes from guinguet, indicating a sour white light local wine.