In Jaurès's Tarn, as in all peasant Southern France during the Third Republic, meals revolved around soup (often in the evening, poured over bread), then a stew cooked in fat that "sticks to the ribs" on feast days or market days, and finally simple sweets nibbled at fairs and festivals. Local wine accompanied, never water alone. They didn't say starter-main-dessert: they said soup, the main dish, and what you eat "on the go."

Emblematic fat of the Southwest and the Tarn: it confits meats, binds soups, and browns millas. It's the common thread of a robust and generous terroir cuisine, the kind from the popular brasseries that Jaurès preferred to high-end restaurants.