Day 3 of our trip and our first full day in Provence! A bit of a late start after the bender last night, and feeling a little partly cloudy and mild. After some amazing local yogurts and cereal it was off to Avignon, 14km north of Graveson.
The roads in Provence are a maze, half the roads aren't on a map and just getting into our tiny town is a choice of about 5 entry points! So getting lost has been a bit of an issue, not that it matters in such beautiful surrounds. We grabbed a few croissants from the local artisanal Boulanger, and headed off. Avignon is a large town, built on the banks of the Rhône River. The oldest, central part, has been walled off since medieval times. The rest of Avignon isn't that great, dirty and run down like the outskirts of most of the big French towns.
Within the walls however, things change drastically! The architecture is a sight to behold, with narrow streets lined with boutiques and restaurants. The smells drifting down the narrow allows are incredible. My main mission was to find the Marché in Les Halles. On the way we stumbled across the most incredible kitchen shop, and I picked up a few goodies for my gorgeous mom. Not cheap, but the kinda stuff you don't find back home...
Literally a block away we stumbled onto the market, and that's when I ascended into food heaven! The market situated in a 'hall' with about 30 various market stalls. The stalls aren't how a Safa would imagine it, they are fixed with two stalls in a square about 10X10m with refrigeration facilities, display cabinets and ovens/coffee machines/ice racks for fish etc.
The market has amazing artisanal breads, fresh fish and oysters, bakers with macaroons etc, spice stalls, green grocers, poultry meat the works! Everything you'd expect in a supermarché but all artisanal and buy per kg or per item, instead of prepackaged.
Most of the stalls have free tasters, but not little pieces of cheese, chunks of cheese on beautiful crackers, small bowls of mousse, slices of 'pizza' and pieces of charcuterie.
I had been dying for some asparagus and managed to find some beautiful stems, a few macaroons (terrible), some cheeses, sour dough breads, French tarragon for a bernaise and a few pastries. All, besides the macaroons, were top notch and very affordable!
After the market we walked the streets of Avignon not knowing too much about it. We stumbled upon the Palais de Papas, the Popes Palace, an enormous structure and surrounding square. In front of it is a massive marble sculpture of The crucifixion with Mary alongside Christ and huge angels praying around the cross. Above is one of the towers of the Palace and right on top is a gold emblazoned Christ blessing the square, an incredible site and feat of engineering! Then it was into Fort St. André, and it's surrounds, all incredibly old and beautiful!
By now, my tour de Marseilles had caught up with me and my left foot was giving in! Janx and Cands were hungry so we made our way back to Graveson.
Avignon is an incredible town, steeped in history, the market an absolute gem with beautiful produce, and very reasonably priced, with some specialist stores. I would highly recommend the capital of Cote-d-Azur to anyone coming to the area!
My next post will be about the incredible meals we made from the produce we picked up in Avignon, with some more amazing, cheap wine from the cote du Rhône, it made for a special meal!
Matty
No comments:
Post a Comment