A Weekend in Provence II

Au marché

I grew up grocery shopping in typical supermarkets.  As an adult, I sometimes had access to a farmers market or two, but those were the exception.  My shopping experiences were just pretty average and standard.

When I moved to France, I discovered the typical street marché.  They could be once a week or up to three times a week.  Unfortunately, where I lived didn't have good access to one, so I still never learned how to deal with them, especially as I couldn't speak the language everybody was shouting at me.  However, our little weekend visit included their weekly market day, so I thought I'd take you on a little tour.

I encourage you to click on any of the pictures to see a larger version, which provides a lot better aspect of the ambiance.

Bags and baskets

A first thing to notice is the typical shopping basket.  I think the Europeans must not have had the same tradition I grew up with of either paper or plastic bags, as they seem to always have taken their own.  For a number of years, the stores did provide them, but now they've been considered environmentally unfriendly unless you pay for them. 

Some French women never did stop taking their own fancy bags to the marchés, and perhaps this style is making a comeback. 

A second thing is how artistically they manage to just toss in their selection into the little baskets as they make their choices.  I couldn't make such a pretty arrangement if I spent all day trying, but I saw a number of random perfectly created "still life" art.

As we tour this particular marché, we start out in the sun by the central fountain.  While this was beautiful on a pretty summer's day, it's probably not so much fun when it's cold and rainy, or when the Mistral is really bad.  It was somewhat strong this day.

Selling their wares

Business concluded

As we get more into the main section of the market, we start finding the stands with specific items.  Some vendors have a variety of fruits, some all kinds of vegetables.  Sometimes the vendors have grown their products themselves, sometimes they buy them from large coops in bulk then resell them.

A lovely fruit collection

Hmm, which veggies do I want?

This being France, of course they have all kinds of cheeses available at the marchés.  This stand had a very attractive and enticing presentation, not to mention excellent quality products.  I know — I got to eat some!

The Swiss-type choices

The bleu choices

The typical overall choices

Not only are fresh items available, it is possible to find specialty items.  This huge pot of paella was totally gone by the time the marché was closing up shop. 

Not having just a whole lot of experience with fishing or even buying whole fish, I found these turbot rather awesome looking at the fish stand.

I'll have paella for dinner

How many portions will this fish make?

Carrying on, we come to this marvelous spice stand.  The Doc didn't even want to look, as he can get totally carried away with all these marvelous smells that I have no clue what to do with.  If nothing else, it was a gorgeous display, especially in a little village market.

May I serve you?

Is anything you want missing?

The French love their herbed olives.  These were also something that were just about empty by the end of the market, especially the bucket being emptied here.  Notice that you can pay for them with your Visa or MC. 

I would have loved to have tried each of these cookies, although they are rarely called cookies, and that's mostly when they are considered American style.  I also wouldn't have minded taking a little pause in the street café here in the shadows.

How may ways can you spruce up olives?

And now it's time to consider dessert

Food isn't all that's found in the marchés.  Depending on the market, you can find all kinds of clothing, fabric, doodads, whatever.  I think the primarily food markets are the most fun, but some of them (like the one near our house in Paris) have very little food.  As this little town isn't all that close to typical commercial shopping, it's probably quite beneficial to the locals to be easily able to pick up odds and ends.

It wouldn't be a market without flower bouquets, would it?  There were several lovely displays that would have made beautiful table settings. 

This whole square out in the sun had many non-food stands, but I didn't end up spending any time checking it out.

Make your dining table pretty

Street version of Wal-mart?

For years, this pottery company has been displaying their wares.  Every so often, they come out with a new line, so they want to get rid of the one they are dropping.  Both the Doc and I were attracted to this blue set, which turns out to be the new line just being introduced.  However, the orange set, very vivid out in the sun, was the ending line, and the price was greatly reduced.  So we ended up buying some of that, and we'll just have to wait for another year to get some of this blue collection.

Really pretty serving dishes

No longer wanted

As we have now worked our way through the village main drag, we find ourselves at the last market area before leaving for the modern world across the street.  I'm not sure what they were selling, as we never made it that far to check it out.

As we are smack in the middle of wine country, it only seems appropriate that we could have purchased multiple varieties of our own little personal baby vine.

The far end of the market

Start your own vineyard

If you've enjoyed this little tour of a typical French street market, come back to see how a real French woman goes shopping.