10lbs more, but smiling...

On Saturday mornings there is a market in Arles, about a 30 minute drive from St Remy de Provence and it is a great market for all types of fresh produce. Arles has a completely different feel to St Remy - it has an exotic flavour with many influences from north Africa. The thing about buying in the market place is that a lot of tasting goes on and on... ( rude not too and all that)

I started off well enough with the fruit and vegetables ( not too much trouble there - easy to avoid chomping on green peppers at 8 in the morning) but when I came to the olives and tapenades - well I had to choose which particular ones (as there are many)  and of course they had to be eaten with fresh bread.

My next taste bud tester was homous accompanied by sesame bread sticks. A very sweet woman makes and bakes all her goodies each weekend and takes such pride in her cooking. She couldn't offer me enough and by 9am I was biting into sticky sweet baklava filled with almonds and honey - so good. My husband, who was buying elsewhere in the market, found me and of course she couldn't resist fattening him up too!

Across the way there is the cutest white van that sells all types of Vietnamese spring rolls and salads. This type of food is very popular in southern France and most towns would have one or two Vietnamese restaurants ( another food fave).

So loaded up with everything possible, 10lbs heavier and smiling, I crossed the road to the other side to buy other bits and pieces that would not send my cholesterol into the stratosphere. The market runs on either side of the main street in Arles and one side is devoted to fruit and vegetables, the other to household goods, flowers, plants, a few antiques - books etc.

I love lillies - casablanca whites and any other of the big headed colourful blooms. They are a great choice in the summer because they not only perfume the house but they last well with the hot temperatures. I tend to buy from the same guy each week -  he is in St Remy on Wednesday and Arles on the Saturday.

Further along in another very jazzy white van was the portable hairdresser - all systems go inside - appointments for cut and colour available ( I was very happy to eat anything offered in the market but not quite so adventurous  with the hair). It reminded me of my son's boarding school in England - they had a mobile van that would come in to cut the boys hair. The older boys, who wanted to grow their hair more fashionably, were always threatened to be shorn if they hadn't cut it by the time they returned to school after a weekend at home - same terrible short cut for all despite hair type or face shape!

And finally the tiny dancing dog with his little red ' chapeau' had everybody entranced....