The pissed camels of Béziers

Le Chameau Ivre (The Drunken Camel) is a wine bar in the centre of Béziers, just a three-minute walk from the Allées, the main thoroughfare. It keeps getting rave reviews, and only last weekend in the Guardian newspaper’s travel supplement Helena Frith Powell described it as nothing less than “the best wine-bar in the region”.

But we still haven’t managed to try it yet, so tell us what you think of it.

Le Chameau Ivre in Béziers

What we do know is that it’s a wine shop and tapas bar which wine merchant Philippe Catusse opened about three and a half or four years ago, and everybody seems to be raving about it.

Our spies tell us that the wine list is phenomenal, with a reasonably priced by-the-glass selection, and the wood-panelled walls are covered with thousands of bottles.

Then there’s the tapas. Wild mountain ham. Oysters from the Étang de Thau just down the road. Homemade tapenades made with green and black olives, figs and pistachios. We’re feeling peckish already.

In the evenings the crowds overflow into the square at Place Jean Jaurès, where there are wine barrels for tables – and quite a bit of cover in case it rains, and sometimes you can still see a few signs of last night’s fun the next morning on the street.

Mind you, we’re always turning up when the place is closed – on Sundays and Mondays.

Anyway, it transpires that Helena Frith Powell didn’t even get paid for her article about Le Chameau Ivre (and other Languedoc wonders) by those tough camel-drivers in the Guardian. As she explains in her blog:

“Last week I was approached by a charming young lady from the Guardian, asking me to write an article about the Languedoc (the region where our house is in the south of France). ‘We can’t pay you,’ she explained. ‘But we can plug your blog or book or whatever.’

“This is not some student rag we’re talking about, or a charity magazine or even a little-known website…”

The swines. But why a camel? And why ivre - drunk or tipsy? Well that’s an amazing little Béziers story, involving the head of a saint from Egypt. We promise to talk about it soon.

Le Chameau Ivre
15 place Jean Jaurès
Telephone: 04-67-80-20-20.
Email: lechameauivre@orange.fr
Open Tuesday to Saturday
10am to 3.30pm, then 6pm to midnight (non-stop on Saturdays)

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