SOUTH OF FRANCE: The farmers' market

LE JOUR DU MARCHÉ

If I really think about it, what we do in France in the summer is either eat or talk about it. It's a (very) French thing.

So I will continue my Summer Report with le marché.

The people there are the best : they are very sweet and they have the best foods; 

Here is where we find the most delicious rates, the tiny incredibly tasty potatoes.

Here you get great berries of all kinds and a tale and a laugh thrown in free of charge.

This adorable man sells his honey; well, you almost have to ask permission to buy his honey he is so shy. 

But what honey! not only in the jars.

AND THEN THERE IS HUGUETTE

and the best tomatoes 

IN. THE. WORLD!

She is a smiling, caring dynamo. She'll always take a minute to ask about your family. She'll keep your heavy baskets until you are ready to go home. She'll let you come to her farm if you can't wait for the Saturday marché. Just a doll with the greatest vegetables and fruit and the warmest personality.

Honestly, wouldn't you buy everything in sight from Huguette?

Did I mentioned tomatoes? more than once? 

We went around the marché and out of pure scientific curiosity we decided to try out the other kinds of tomatoes on offer. There were white ones( bland) green ones (pretty good) purple ones (better) small ones, long ones, HUGE ones... NONE compare to Huguette's. Period.

Well what goes beautifully with tomatoes? all things olive.

The olive man has the perfect tapenade, the olive paste made with olive oil, capers, garlic and anchovies and herbes de Provences of course. 

"Tapenade (pronounced tap-en-AAD) is a Provençal dish consisting of puréed or finely chopped olives, capers, anchovies and olive oil. Its name comes from the provençal word for capers, tapenas (Occitan pronunciation: [taˈpenɔ]). It is a popular food in the south of France where it is generally eaten as an hors  d'oeuvre, spread on bread. Sometimes it is also used to stuff fillets for a main course." wikipedia.

We have tried every possible tapenade in Les Vans and apart from the one made by my friend Françoise, a true fille du midi who has the tapenade down to perfection, the one from the marché is by far the best. 

and then there are, bien sur, les fromages! most made in the hills surrounding Les Vans

Next time I'll show you around the town, its boutiques and a little architecture.

Until then, 

au revoir.