Day 11 - Provencal Market

Isla woke up at 3:40 AM this day and I gave in and let her have a middle-of-the-night feed (after 11 days of travel, she'd worn me down to the point of submission). She willingly went back to bed and we all got up around 8:30 to enjoy one of our highlight breakfasts, a fresh Cherry Clafoutis. Never had one? Neither had we but Monique informed us it was a very common French breakfast. To me, it tasted like a cross between a souffle and a very thick (1 inch or so) Swedish pancake. It was so delicious and filled with fresh cherries. Of course we also had bread and cheese, jams, Nespresso and yogurt.

Following breakfast, off we went to the local Provencal market in Carpentras. We entered through this old city gate and then from there on, every street was lined with vendors.

It was bustling with people and you could buy pretty much anything you wanted: food, clothes, lavender, adult diapers...I had fun trying to pick out a Provencal tablecloth. But then it got stressful when I couldn't make up my mind on a color and when I couldn't figure out whether a rectangle or square cloth would work better for our tables that both have extensions that we use quite frequently. In the end, I didn't even buy anything. :(

We did buy some edibles however, in preparation for dinner. We selected some olives (there were probably 25 varieties to choose from), fresh goat cheese and haricot verts.

Graham also bought a French shirt from one of the vendors (no pic available...watch for a white-collared short sleeve shirt in future posts). After spending close to two hours wandering the market, we purchased half of a caramelized onion pizza and half of a fresh goat cheese pizza and ate it in the city square. We happened to be right near a lot of clothes vendors and I wondered aloud if this is how people fill the majority of their wardrobes, buying clothes off the racks without even trying them on. I guess I can't be French after all because this set up would be far too stressful for me as I like to take my time and see what things look like on.

We headed back to our B&B, just as the clouds arrived. Isla look a nap and I snatched the opportunity to blog a little on the community computer at the B&B. When Isla woke up, we dipped out feet in the pool until the light rain began.

Since it was not really sunbathing/swimming weather, we decided to make a "quick" fun to Avignon, as it was supposed to be one of the most visited cities in the region (Maybe in all of France too? I can't remember...) The rain had let up and so I did not pack coats for us, silly me. Our first impression of the city was not a positive one as I think we entered through the "back side." There was graffiti all over the city walls and everything was dirty. We found a really tight parking spot in what we hoped was a free lot and went out in search of the city center. The further into the city we traveled, the better it got. We passed by some pretty swanky looking clothing stores in a hip shopping area (I guess this is a college town). We made it to the main square where we saw the Palace of the Popes (pictured behind me).

This was the official residence of the popes in 1309, when they moved here from Rome (did you know that they weren't always housed in Rome?) They stayed here until 1377 when they returned to Rome. Crazy! Oh, and by the way, the picture above pretty much sums up what I looked like as we toured the various French cities. I look like a local, don't I?

We walked up to this view point where we could see the Rhone River below and the "famous" St Benezet Bridge. I say "famous" because there is apparently a nursery rhyme that "everyone knows" about this bridge, according to Rick Steves. "Sur le Pont d'Avignon." Do you know it? Neither did we. The bridge was still cool to see though because it only extended halfway across the river (I think the rest was washed away with flooding). Tourists were allowed to walk out onto it, but for a small fortune, so we opted out and headed back to the car because.....

it began POURING! And look my lovely "rain gear" outfit. Ha! We pretty much ran the whole way to the car, only getting a wee bit lost on the way. We drove quickly back to our B&B, motivated by the fact that we didn't want to miss our nightly glass of complimentary rose wine that we planned to enjoy with dinner. :) We were too late though. Oh well!

This time, I cooked dinner using the ingredients purchased at the market. I sauteed garlic and haricot verts (French green beans that are AMAZING) in olive oil, along with shrimp and tomato. I served this mixture over mesclun greens, adding the herbed olives and rounds of goat cheese for a lovely main dish salad. I also cooked up some of the leftover pasta and dressed it with olive oil and herbs for a side.

We put Isla to bed around 8 PM. It was still raining pretty hard so we opted to watch a movie on the community tv and eat bowls of delicious dark chocolate ice cream. We chose Bucket List, which neither of us had seen before and I pretty much sobbed buckets (I don't remember crying that hard in a movie since seeing PS I Love You). It was a great night, despite the tears!