My Bla Bla Car driver Jeremy dropped me at the start of the L1 line on the outskirts of Toulouse rather than his final destination, which saved me an extra 25 minutes journey on the bus 🙂 This was welcome after 3 hours in an overly heated car with 4 strangers.
My hotel was right in the centre of town, a boutique family run establishment with a decent sized room and comfortable bed. Normally, when faced with one night in a new city I find myself torn by the huge choice of restaurants and bars and agonise over which one to visit. Not so tonight! As I walked out of my hotel and crossed the road to stroll along the last few minutes of a artisan/craft market I saw the Brasserie Le Pyrénéen. Outside was a waiter manning (or is it personning these days ?) the seafood stall in front of the restaurant. Oysters of all different types were piled high with spider crabs, mussels and prawns all vying for space. I was immediately transported back to the L’Écume des Mers and Brasserie de La Paix in Lille, where I spent so many happy hours in the early years of this century. I immediately knew I wanted to eat there and went in. I was shown to a table for one opposite the bar. It was a typical Parisian Brasserie with its high ceilings, chandeliers, mirrors and brassware with waiters sporting bow ties and dinner jackets.
I ordered oysters, salmon tartare with French fries and a half bottle of red. The oysters were perfectly served on a bed of ice with two choices of bread and some lemon wedges. I was pleasantly surprised not to get the usual bowl of shallot, red onion and white wine sauce that always seems to accompany oysters in Lille. Why oh why would you subject an oyster to that, completely destroying the delicate flavour of the oyster and the sea. I never understood it, but a small squeeze a lemon is just right. The salmon tartare was also excellent although my eldest daughter pronounced it grim looking from the photo!
There are in fact about 4 tables for one all in a row and the one next to me was already occupied by a man tucking into a large seafood platter. After a while I noticed that every time the waiters spoke to him they spoke in English, intrigued I asked if he was English, no ‘I’m Dutch’ he said. His name is Dennis (added to my contacts as Dennis the Dutch) and although he’s lived in Toulouse for some time he doesn’t yet speak a lot of French, but equally the waiters like to practice their English on him.
As a local living a couple of hundred metres away they all knew him well. We soon struck up a conversation and he told me he did a lot of big interior design projects and architecture, his girlfriend, an air hostess was away. He then took me to a fabulous bar full of locals with a rather eccentric owner and bar staff.
Again they knew him well, so I was incredibly well looked after. We spent the evening drinking pints and then some wine. I think a few shots appeared as well and we often passed our phones over to the DJ to play chosen songs from our playlists. Singing away and telling stories, it was a really great evening and just goes to show that so often the best times just happen unexpectedly!
The Pyrénéen 
The Pyrénéen 
Oysters 
Salmon tartare 
Dennis ‘The Dutch’