“Can I bring you anything?” Arnaldo do Carmo asks Mika. This truck driver is coming from Pau. He has refueled at Mont-de-Marsan and is heading to Barcelona de Ger the next day. But first, he stops at the roadside restaurant Le Poulet Portugal, located near the Pau-Bordeaux axis, for a good meal and a reassuring shower.
“Last time, I wanted to come but the parking lot was full,” Mika confirms. “When that’s the case, you park the car…
“Can I bring you anything?” Arnaldo do Carmo asks Mika. This truck driver is coming from Pau. He has refueled at Mont-de-Marsan and is heading to Barcelona de Ger the next day. But first, he stops at the roadside restaurant Le Poulet Portugal, located near the Pau-Bordeaux axis, for a good meal and a reassuring shower.
“Last time, I wanted to come but the parking lot was full,” Mika confirms. “When that happens, go and park your car a little further away and then call me and I’ll come pick you up,” replies the man from Ribalonga, in northern Portugal, near Vila Real.
Initially, Arnaldo and Lucia do Carmo wanted to invest in a restaurant located in the vicinity of Tarbes, Lourdes or Pau. Due to their budget constraints, the couple could not buy in the area.
Closed for eleven years
During this period, they often passed through the village of Fignau, especially on their way to Pau. “When I passed the building, I said to Lucia: ‘I knew this restaurant, it was always full,’” Arnaldo recalls. Very quickly, Lucia inquired at the town hall.
The building has just been sold at auction and has been bought by a real estate agency. Closed for eleven years, the building requires major work. Electricity, plumbing, ceramics, painting. Everything needs to be done again. Nothing discourages the couple who acquired the property in October 2021. In mid-November, Arnaldo and Lucía do Carmo set to work with the help of friends and family members.
Le Poulet Portugal is located near the Pau-Bordeaux axis, a strategic point for truck drivers.
Philip Salvat / SO
During the renovation, the couple were surprised to find a basement. “I didn’t understand why our humidity was so high. We ended up finding a cave filled with water. Since then, I have had lift pumps,” explains Arnaldo.
After nearly six months of work, the couple finally opened the restaurant in April 2022. In the meantime, they continued their business as a caterer, griller and roaster. Since 2014, Arnaldo has been traveling the Landes markets selling chicken, potatoes, pork ribs, pork shanks, roast pork, cod pies, shrimp and meat. Lucia joined him on this adventure in 2021.
Family kitchen
In the restaurant, Lucia does the cooking. Born in France to Portuguese parents, she learned to cook with her mother Ana Maria and her sister Marie José. “I have more than twenty years of experience in catering. Here, I would say it is a family kitchen. We have a menu for €16.90 with three starters, three main courses and three desserts to choose from. We always try to serve fish or two cuts of meat.”
Lucia do Carmo is hard at work in her Portuguese chicken kitchen.
Philip Salvat / SO
What about chicken then? “It’s always the case, in a Portuguese style. In other words, with piri piri sauce (based on chili peppers, paprika and garlic, editor’s note),” explains Lucia. During the week, she sometimes prepares Portuguese dishes like feijoada (Portuguese cassoulet) or cozido portuguesa, a kind of stew.
However, these dishes are mostly cooked on weekends, especially during the Portuguese evenings that the couple organizes. “We recently welcomed a Portuguese folk band from Pau.” The couple are even thinking of organizing fado evenings, that song that evokes nostalgia and sadness.
long hours of driving
It’s almost 7 p.m. The restaurant’s parking lot, which can accommodate up to 25 trucks, is gradually filling up. Francis, the truck driver, walks through the restaurant door, which gives direct access to the bar. Lucia is in the kitchen. “Tonight, chicken or Toulouse sausage or hake fillets with potatoes, parsley and Southern pan.”
Luis, the truck driver, talks to Arnaldo, the bar owner.
Philip Salvat / SO
Luis and Mika, two truck drivers, enjoy a cold beer. Arnaldo takes Francis's order. “I'll take a shower and have a meal, please.” The driver has a few kilometers on the clock. He has been doing this job for thirty-five years and is “delighted” to find a place to shower and eat in this corner of the Landes.
“I left Agen at about 4:30 this morning. I went to Bordeaux, then Auch. From Auch, I loaded up the rapeseed before stopping at Vignau. I will go tomorrow to deliver it to Bordeaux.”
On average, Lucia and Arnaldo receive between 10 and 20 truck drivers a day. “Sometimes, using the trucks, we get to know them. Some even become friends,” they say.
