Saturday was the last market day in Loches before Christmas. I took a few pictures to try and give a sense of market shopping, but to be honest, it isn't easy to take photos and shop at the same time.
Standing in line at the cheese stall. Note the pair in the background exchanging the standard cheek kisses in greeting. The cheese stall had twice as many staff as usual and there was still a queue, so they were doing good business.
This stall belongs to the farm who have the vegetable
vending machine at Villandry.
Citrus is a big seller at Christmas time. This is when you are most likely to see it with leaves still attached. I'm not sure what the leaves signify -- freshness? hand picked? the contrast of the green leaves and the orange fruit just looks pretty?
This is a hole-in-the-wall poultry seller. They are organic and only open on market days. The 'shop' is at most 2 metres from front to back and what you see is all there is. They are all about quality and not quantity.
The lettuces that are responsible for us living where we do. Simon was so taken by the lettuce display on this stall when he first encountered it back in 2006 that he announced that we had to live within reach of this market (and he doesn't even like lettuce). This stall also had extra staff and was dealing with the queue very quickly and efficiently. They are market gardeners from just across the river in Beaulieu-lès-Loches.
Italian cuisine is just about the only other style of cooking that the traditional and conservative French are willing to eat on a regular basis. This stall sells excellent fresh pasta and a few other Italian staples.
The apiarist I buy from regularly, stoically enduring the cold.
5 comments:
Simon knew what he was doing. You two found the right place.
Thanks for the market photos; it's a market we really enjoy when we're in that area, especially that cheese truck that has Clacbitou, which is hard to find.
It looks so cold - I can't believe that we will be there by next October (long johns will be packed).
Such a beautiful blue cloudless sky for Xmas eve.
Sue and I wish you both a joyous and safe festive season.
Like vine tomatoes, clémentines with the leaves on are supposed to be the best, traditionally from Corsica, and not mass produced, though I doubt that is true today.
I'm trying to buy seasonal vegetables from local market gardeners but keep finding myself short because I no longer what the quantities I need! There are no market gardeners on our market in Paris so I more or less buy the same thing all year round (fruit is more seasonal). I need that automatic vendor!
Leon. I've been out in my t-shirt these past days. Not for long, admittedly, but long enough to wash paint brushes and rollers. Minimum of 9 overnight - which is about 15degrees warmer than I would expect at this time of year
That hole-in-the-wall poultry shop is the only place in France where I've ever seen white eggs. In the U.S., eggs are normally white, and the brown ones are the exception. I never find white eggs here in France.
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