To the Market!

We headed into town for the farmer’s market today. We wandered through the twisty roads until we came out in a square filled with merchants and their fresh produce. Lots of cool things to see along the way – including fountains, beautiful streets, an accordion player, and old town squares.

Markets happen daily in Aix most of the year, so there’s always a source of local fresh produce. You need to carefully check it out though – not all of it is created equal. We ended up purchasing some salad that was a little sketchy and an onion we had to throw out because it was rotten. That’s our fault though – we were caught in the moment.

The market has a huge selection – fresh vegetables, locally made sausages, fresh cheese, herbs and spices, fruit, home-crafted breads, etc. It was beautiful to behold and quite reasonably priced. We purchased food for breakfast, two dinners and two lunches for about 30 Euros, which was quite a good deal in my mind.We also bought amazing local sausage, oodles of vegetables, some fresh cheese. All of it was amazing.

 

On the way back we wound our way through the streets, generally aiming for our apartment but stumbling on new and beautiful sights. We came across a gorgeous square which is in the middle of being restored. Apparently it’s an American university of some sort – but it’s absolutely magnificent – complete with a fountain and cobblestones.

Later in the day we ventured out again and headed over to the local Cathedral. The girls though it was huge, but I explained to them that it was small by European standards. We’d be seeing Cathedrals which would not only impress you, but make you say “Oh! My God!” when you walked into them (by design) when we went to Paris and some of the other bigger cities.

Regardless, the cathedral was really impressive to them. We lit a candle for grandma, and explored it further, discovering that the main cathedral was built on top of a roman ruin built in 500AD. The girls couldn’t quite compute this – but seemed impressed. Let’s just say it’s really, really old.

 

We headed home, made dinner (chicken with an improvised crème-fraiche, garlic and red wine sauce – ah oui!) and went to bed – exhausted from jet lag and a fun day of exploring. All in all, a great way to start the week!