Market Day in Provence: The Vaucluse and Beyond

“The time is 8:30 on a Thursday morning in mid-October. We are at the Vaison-la-Romaine market and a chill is in the air. Vendors bundled in woollen scarves warm their hands on steaming cups of coffee behind heaped tables of produce: squat, grey-green pumpkins, sliced to reveal fiery orange flesh; colourful heirloom tomatoes; stacks of leeks; herbs spilling out of baskets; feathery heads of frisée lettuce…

Among the butchers, fromagers and fishmongers, a row of smaller, covered stands offer the local bounty: late-season figs and raspberries; glossy chestnuts; and wild cèpes still covered with earth. Lavender is everywhere, neatly tied in bundles or brimming from bowls to be scooped into sachets.”