Le marché

For me, markets are definitely one of the highlights of going to a foreign country. And the best markets are found in France. 

We saw stalls full of juicy peaches, ripe pears, miniature bananas and large grapes. 

There was freshly baked bread of all sorts. Sadly I couldn't buy any as it would have gone stale but the smell coming from the stalls was incredibly tempting. 

I'd never seen so many different spices before! And there was such a variety of peppercorns; almost every colour you could dream of. Naturally I had to pick up some herbs de Provence for my family!

There was also a whole stall dedicated to salami-style sausages. Here in the UK we don't go in for cured sausages in a big way so it was really interesting to see that there were so many varieties. My French family kindly let me try a pork and pork liver sausage one evening and whilst I wouldn't eat it on a daily basis, it was good to be able to taste some of the local food. I'll definitely be less afraid of eating cured sausages in the future!

I thought this was a really lovely photo - I think it shows the unpretentious character of the market. In France, visiting the market or the local bakery is just a way of life, whereas at home we tend to go to the supermarket and buy everything all at once. 

I loved how each stall was filled with different foods - some had paella bubbling away for lunch, others sold cheese (I almost picked up a few rounds of goats' cheese) and there were still others selling mushrooms freshly picked from the mountains that same morning. 

The markets alone are reason enough for me to move to France when I'm older!