We sadly left Provence on Saturday...but happily made our way into Burgundy!
But I still have a few blog posts I really want to share with you all before we leave our journey through Provence, so I will try and shoot them all out over the next couple of days.
Today I want to share with you the joys of the markets in Provence. These are a total way of life here. The locals frequent them daily, they literally shop every day for their fresh meat and produce and the heart of each village can be seen and felt through the market(s) that are hosted there.
For us, this was one of our main purposes of coming to France, so each day we looked at which markets were on in our area and over the four weeks spent in Pernes-les-Fontaine, we made our way around to just about all of them.
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| Vaison-la-Romaine market - Tuesday morning |
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| Vaison-la-Romaine - Tuesday morning |
My favourite market of all (I think...) was in Vaison-la-Romaine. In this market I met and admired the character pictured above. He was amazing. I didn't catch his name, he didn't speak much English but we managed a conversation quite well, he started with..."J'ai un amis en australie - tu connaitre - Tina Arena!" (translated to - I have one friend in Australia, do you know Tina Arena?") - apparently this guy is friends of the father of Tina Arenas partner and Tina comes to this market regularly when she is in France! Who would have guessed - when he said he had a friend in Melbourne and maybe I'd know her, I nearly laughed!
Anyway, this was not the reason I loved this man - we stood and watched him at his craft for almost an hour - yes the kids grew bored after about 10 minutes, but I persisted, he lovingly pin boned his salmon that he was selling sous vide, he caressed it as he sliced his smoked salmon and he spoke of his method of cold smoking and then showed us the whole fish that he had in his chiller. It really was an awesome experience!
In Pernes itself we had two markets, Saturday morning was the main one and then a smaller producers market was held on Wednesday nights. I actually attended the last Wednesday night one with my neighbour which was great. Having someone that could speak fluently and explain to me some of the produce that was still foreign to me was fantastic!
These markets all offered an array of fresh produce. Of course, there was always the staples, fromage (cheese), saucisson (similar to salami), tomatoes, asperges (asparagus), fraise (strawberries), artichaut (artichokes), seafood galore, butchers etc. but there was also some more specialised items for sale depending on the area of the market...
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| Fromage - Carpentras - Friday morning |
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| Fromage - Carpentras - Friday morning |
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| Fromage - Vaison-la-Romaine - Tuesday morning |
enough of the cheese...what about some saucisson...
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| Saucisson - every market...every day...yum! |
and what about some fresh veg....
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| Artichokes - Malaucene - Wednesday mornings |
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| Amazing tomatoes! Gordes - Tuesday mornings - one of the best markets! |
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| Only the fresh is on offer - love it! - L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue - Sunday mornings - one of the busiest markets in such a beautiful village |
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| Vaison-la-Romaine - Tuesday mornings |
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| Vaison-la-Romaine - Tuesday mornings |
and don't forget the strawberries... they have to be from Carpentras!
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| Carpentras - Friday mornings |
and would you like your herbs fresh or dried?...
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| Bedoin - Monday mornings - another fave |
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| Pernes-les-Fontaines - of course this was one of our faves too - it was 50m from our door step! |
And the seafood...please can I cook?
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| Fresh off the boat on the harbour of Marseille - every morning |
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| Vaison-la-Romaine - Tuesday morning |
And anyone for meat? Would you like beef, lamb...or maybe cheval (horse)?
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| Vaison-la-Romaine - Tuesday morning |
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| Pernes-les-Fontaines - Saturday morning |
Something sweet?
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| Lavender honey from Gordes - Tuesday morning |
Or something made from the bees that produced the honey?
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| Honey soap - Gordes Tuesday morning |
Do you need something to carry everything you've just bought? Yes please!
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| Baskets - Cavaillon market - Monday morning |
Or something to serve the food up that you are just about to make?
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| Locally made ceramics for sale - L'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue - Sunday morning |
Or maybe you are just after some amazing scenery...
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| Gordes market looking over Plateau de Vaucluse to the north - Tuesday mornings |
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| Gordes market surrounded by amazing buildings to the east - Tuesday mornings |
Whatever it is you are after, you can find it, or something better at these markets! If you are heading over to Provence though, make sure you check for dates in the local villages as we have been caught out a few times going to a village only to find they had changed their days - like in Rousillon, although, there is always something else to explore, see or do so its never a waste...
Kim
Magnificent photos, so clear. Michael enjoying the photography, who could blame him. The tomatoes look amazing, you'd have to make some beautiful relish with them. Loz just said you were out exploring. Is Burgandy as beautiful as the Pernes les fountaines? Markets too?
ReplyDeleteHi gail, yes we are absolutely loving the food! Been in Burgundy 4 days now and slowly getting the feel for it. Our village Varzy, is very different to Pernes-les-Fontaine. It is very small, less than 1500 people live here and there are alot of empty buildings around. The main street only has a few shops that are occupied, a couple of boulangeries, one boucherie, and a couple of others. The market for this village is tomorrow so we are going to go there before we head a bit down south to go to the Nevers market. We have been exploring the area in the car the last few days - weather hasnt been great, pouring with rain alot of the time, but discovering lots of beautiful villages that we will revisit once the rain stops! x
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