Annie Lennox Goes to Market

Wednesday, September 11th, 2019

It’s Market Day in Saint-remy de Provence! 

Market day shopping is a favourite thing for me to do while travelling in Europe. 

Markets are full of life. 

 

Unfortunately for me ... I was late out of the gate this morning. 

I sent my three travelling partners on ahead.

They arrived back home with their fresh fruit, vegetable and rotisserie chicken haul.

I was now ready to join them, we visited the dry goods, wares and anything Provençal in linens, decor, plants, etc.  

This market is impressive. 

Anything and everything lavender ... 

Shopping bags and pottery ...

Madame Susan and I could have used these last night while cooking ... 

Checking out some French linens 

Beautiful items made of Olive wood ...

A « chapeau «  for everyone ...

And cork items from Spain and Portugal not from France ...   interesting tidbit we received from the vendor, the cork in France is too thin & fragile to be used. 

Herbs for sale ... 

Fresh cut flowers 


The church bells had rung announcing that it was 12 noon ... we wandered a little longer. 

Why not here for lunch? 
We settled on L’Olivade 

The plat du jour was chosen and turned out to be a delicious dish of pork with a wine shallot sauce served atop mashed potatoes, roasted white turnips, squash, spinach & fresh herbs.

 

Plat du Jour ...

We then wandered back around the ring road heading home for a siesta ... first a stop here for an ice cream! 

Most definitely a siesta was now needed ... 

Just a Pretty courtyard around the corner from Mas D’Oscar.

Discovering More of Saint-Remy de Provence

Tuesday, September 10th, 2019 

#postcardsfromthelot #thegoodlifefrance

We opted to checkout a bit more of Saint-Remy this morning.  

The village of St. Rémy is full of charm, very pretty, picturesque and one of the oldest towns in France. 

The old historic centre is surrounded by the remnants of the circular 14th-century wall.

In 1503 Nostradamus, the famous doctor and astrologer was born here. 

Van Gogh painted approximately 150 canvases including the « Starry Night » when he spent time at the St. Paul’s Hospital.

Dr Albert Schweitzer was prisoner here. 

It had rained heavy throughout the night and was a bit drizzly looking as we ventured out. 

We were armed with an umbrella just in case.

The weather has been wonderful from the moment we landed on Saturday with temperatures in the low 30s Celsius. 

The dolphin fountain ...

The facade of the Maire 

We strolled thru the historic centre dodging the rain by popping in and out of a few boutiques. 

First stop ... we found the interesting home decor shop “ Les Comptoirs des Alpilles “ that my friend, Claire recommended.

 

Next we discovered this little shop or at least we thought it was “little” until we walked in. 

The space continued and continued and included a mini museum in the upper level. 

Here we sampled jams, olives, tapenade ... it was delicatable! 

Since the rain continued, we went to one of the larger supermarkets, Carrefour on the outskirts of Avignon (about 1/2 hour away). 

We had a good shop and also Monsieur Mark came away with a new hairstyle. 

Tonight we dined at home « Mas d’Oscar » ... it was Team Madames turn to be the top chefs. 

. 

Wednesday is Market Day so we will be hanging around this beautiful town tomorrow also. 

Wild, Wild Horses Couldn’t Drag Me Away from the Camargue.

Monday, September 9th, 2019 (Day 3) ...

We travelled south about an hour to the seaside town of Saintes-Marie de la Mer in the Camargue on Monday morning to meet up with our Belgian friends Madame M and Monsieur Guy (who were travelling in Spain & France). 

We arrived a few minutes early ... it was super busy! 

Finally found a parking spot on the waterfront ... we wandered along the boardwalk with views of the diamonds dancing on the water.

We easily met up with our friends at the appointed place ... Hotel de Ville.  

After hugs and introductions between both sets of friends, Madame Susan and Monsieur Mark went off to the busy market, while we found a nearby café for a drink and “catch up”! 

Old friends sharing laughs and memories! 


Once all six of us were together we wandered thru the town checking out the usual souvenir  shops ...

Will this be as close I get to seeing the pink flamingos? 

                                  
We settled on a fantastic restaurant for lunch (déjeuner) A Le Fleur De Sel - Chez Alexandra 

Delicious food, wonderful presentation & service! 

 My choice was the most delicious surprise ... a new twist to moules frites 

“Poêlon de moules, farci à l’Aioli, potatos maison” description on the menu ... we translated it to be a skillet of mussels cooked in aioli with house made potatoes! 

The mussels were presented as escargot would be! Yummy! 

   
After our “dejeuner” we strolled the streets and then headed for a walk along the beach promenade.
A beautiful entrance step decorated with colourful tiles ...

Poet’s Bar 




Street art ...

Oh what do you think is in that courtyard? 

It was a fun day of visiting with friends at the seaside.

The roads thru the Camargue are lush with vegetation ... pampas grass, gigantic bamboo and various trees. 



Trying to get caught up in posting about our travels ... maybe on the weekend I will find some time!