Retirementtravels follow one traveler, usually alone, who enjoys southern France.

One carefully selected village is chosen for a month's stay, taking day trips or overnights if necessary, to wander and explore.

         

                       Doc:  (so, therefore)

With this intro and previous explanation of lengthy absence, here goes. . . . . . 

More than a Cursory Experience. . . . . . . 

Culture, History, markets, shops, transportation, gelato, entertainment

Let's Talk Markets

Markets provide every sensory experience you should ever need to feel alive.  I love markets.  Annemarie, a teacher I had in Uzes, 150 steps to her 3rd floor apartment, took me by the shoulders, steering me to a window after I asked where she shopped without a car.  She pointed down to the Place Aux Herbes, telling me if it wasn't there, she didn't eat it.  Fresh?  Farm to market?  Absolutely.

While shopping at a local Casino in Cros de Cagnes, my friend bought items for dinner: fresh salmon and bib lettuce for a salad.  We didn't use all the bib so next evening she pulled out the remaining lettuce.  It was spoiled.  Fresh, fresh, fresh with daily trips to the market if you wish to eat like a local.

Many of my bus or train trips are organized around market days.  Although I've never cooked nor baked much, markets absolutely fascinate me.  I've learned more about produce and metric weight than in cookbooks or textbooks.  I've tried herbes and spices that had never been noticed at home, packing a couple kilos of interesting items to repackage as gifts.

Look at the beautiful leeks.  Have you ever?????  Previously I wrote that 'not being a gourmande', just discovered gourmande is an adjective for greedy.  Must find a substitute word.  Once spent $50.00 on enough leeks to make a gratin.  It wasn't special but I'll try again someday, 'not being much of cook'.