Au marché avec mon sac 'Clover Cottage'

'To the market, with my Clover Cottage bag!' Every French town has a thriving market. Market shopping is very important to the French.

The food is often sold by the producer, and is often more local, more fresh and, above all, you can see, touch, smell or even taste it. There is no point in buying food you haven't checked this way, for the French - the only supermarket which does internet orders only does them for packaged dry goods - OBVIOUSLY no one would buy fruit or veg without checking them first...That amazing 'swirl' above is fish! Dried sardines, I assume... and in front of the marié you can choose your goats' cheese or sign up for some double-glazed windows.

I was looking for a zip for a favourite pair of Son 1's shorts. Here's the haberdashery stall. The lady was happy for me to take photos, but apologised that the stall wasn't well decorated today! Looked fine to me...There certainly were enough zips!I found a good match.It's tricky to see here, but there are loops and loops of dried sausage hanging on the stall here. It's very yummy. Pork, beef, duck...The Halle, which was deserted when I took photos last Wednesday, is full on market day. Ah-ha, the Provencale stalls....All my kitchen towels come from this one (circular blue towels with embroidered provencale foods), and my mum bought a wonderful quilt at a stall like this - getting it home on the plane was fun!After a good look around all the plant and flower stalls, I chose this one to buy some herbs.Here they are - the sweet aromatic ones which Raja ate within a day of planting last year - now safely out of doggie reach below the Pot family and their strawberries.Tomorrow - memories from Scotland, to prepare the way for my 100th post Auld Alliance giveaway!