I sit in La Place de La Madeleine, at the restaurant La Librairie. Inside the restaurant there is indeed a bookshop, hence the name. The canvas canopy blinds are extended today to keep the sun off the half dozen tables outside on the square. The Madeleine Church faces me. It has been there almost a thousand years, and witnessed the massacre of the Cathar faithful by the Catholic Crusade forces on 22nd July 1209, the same day they set fire to the city of Béziers and killed anyone they could find, women and children included. Its cool, dark Romanesque interior is suitably stark, as if a testament to its past; the only colour coming from its stained glass windows and the soft yellow ochre of the stone from which it is built.

The appetizer arrives. Like most of the dishes here it has an Asian slant. The "Chicken Triangles" of the menu turn out to be chicken and vegetable samosas without the Indian spices. They are crisp and delicious. They are accompanied by a green salad with freshly grated carrots, sliced radishes, almonds and snow peas, all laced with a tangy mustard dressing.

Between courses I relax, listen to the people at the other tables and watch the occasional passer by, and take in the square, with its four-storied 19th century stone houses, with their classic French windows and wrought iron balconies. The square is paved in a pale grey stone. Olive trees sit in quare wooden containers painted in the same silver-grey-green of the leaves of the trees they house. Today is a brilliantly sunny day, the sky an impossibly vibrant shade of blue, and small white clouds float like cotton in the sky.

My rabbit in pimento arrives, accompanied with sauce in a little pot and Thai rice. I learn that the female chef had a Vietnamese grandmother, and enjoys combining ingredients from her Asian and French backgrounds. She tells me later that she would like to do more Vietnamese dishes, but she is restrained somewhat in her choice by the owner who likes to keep it a little more traditional.

It is very civilized to stop for lunch. Everything stops. Banks shut, shops close, parking is free. From 12.00 to 2.00pm you have no choice but to relax, eat, drink a glass or two of wine and watch the world go by. Perhaps this is why the French, despite a diet high in saturated fat, have one of the lowest rates of heart disease in Europe.

The Germans at the next table play with their mobile phones, their PDAs and a digital camera. The French on the far table drink a bottle of red wine and smoke cigarettes, their laughter increasing directly in proportion to their consumption.

The Madeleine Church strikes the hour. Two chimes, simple and clear. It is two o'clock. Life returns to Béziers. The shops begin to open after their two-hour lunch break. Restored, refreshed and fortified with a carafe of wine, the people of Béziers go back to work.

I am offered a glass of AOC Maury by the owner of the restaurant, a wine similar to Banyuls, a vin doux naturel from the very southernmost part of Roussillon. There is always something extra here. Last time it was a bottle of wine wrapped in tissue paper, to take away at the end of the meal. The time before that there was a carafe of wine on the house. The owner is friendly and wants his customers to keep coming back. They do. I bring everyone I know. They fall in love with La Librairie in the Madeleine Square.

A little heady, I pay the bill and head for my car.