The Best Cheap Cheeses You’ll Ever Taste! A Random Soap Purchase & a dose of Blouse Regret

A postcard from Provence

Good Morning! Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend! It is a bank holiday weekend here in France so it is absolute chaos ! The weather here in Provence is literally perfect and everyone is out en force to enjoy it all!

We spent a couple of nights in a very sweet, quiet campsite in Saint Remy De Provence (Camping Pegomas if you are interested) and it was ace because it was a 10 minute stroll in to the town, which was excellent because it meant base camp could stay put for 48 hours and we didn’t have to navigate parking the beast in a town carpark. PERFECT

As ‘luck’ would have it (haha …so cunning you could pin a tail on me and call me a fox) there was a market the very next morning, in town. The French know how to market. And I am kicking myself for stupidly bringing clothes with me when the clothes out here are fab and at such good prices they are almost impossible to resist. (It is on a Wednesday morning should you require the info)

The huge sprawling market gently winds it’s way round the tiny lanes of Remy - lanes that Van Gough once walked for SURE.

Picture perfect creamy yellow sandstone lanes filled with fragrant wild jasmine, wisteria, honeysuckle and bright pink clouds of Bougainvillea growing in abundance up the ancient chalky walls of the buildings and I wondered whether these plants were being held up by the buildings they cling to or vice versa, it’s almost impossible to tell.

The butter yellow stone lanes worn smooth with time and lined with deliciously sun bleached pastel shuttered shops and houses, with the stall holders standing shoulder to shoulder under their awnings, behind tables FULL of the goodies they had carefully set out before the sun was up, to tempt us to stop for a minute & consider their handmade leather bags, silver artisan jewellery, paintings and watercolours beautifully framed so passers by could easily imagine taking a piece of Provence home with them. And of course, allll the linen a girl could wear, along with woven straw bags in every shape size and colour, hung on every available hook, tree branch and awning, swaying gently in the warm morning light. The well worn trail eventually ends up in the town square for the fresh produce part of the market. The main event for locals and an absolute FEAST for the senses for everyone who flocks here.

CHEAP CHEESES…

And this is where you will find wheels of cheese, bigger than the spare wheel on our van, and this is where we stopped to sample tiny chunks of local cheeses offered to us on old wooden boards, by a smiling Frenchman who worked his magic and had us in the palm of his hand. Whipping out board after board of cheese chunks and explaining - in detail, each cheese and why we should buy it. They were absolutely delicious and one in particular really stood out. ‘THIS ONE IS CHEAP CHEESES’ he announced proudly. ‘THE VERY BEST CHEAP CHEESES YOU WILL EVER TASTE’ He offered more - ‘THIS ONE IS COW CHEESES and THIS is goat cheeses’

He must have noticed our slight confusion and confirmed ‘YOU LIKE THE CHEAP CHEESES?’ ummmm… this one yes we really love this one - we’d like a chunk of this please

He repeated it. ‘CHEAP CHEESES YES???? CHEAP CHEESES MADE FROM THE VERY BEST CHEAP MILK’ again he registered our slight confusion in the bustle and chaos and held his index finger up and asked us to wait a moment. He rifled through a box, found what he was searching for and triumphantly held up a battered china sheep and pointed at it as if it was OBVIOUS and announced ‘CHEESES FROM CHEAP!’

All three of us falling about laughing - yes please, we will have some Cheap Cheese. (and actually it wasn’t cheap but well worth the 14 Euros we payed, not only for the sublime flavour but for the highly amusing memory we now have haha!)

ANYWAY!

I was wooed by these contraptions after a short but very hard sell from a delightful French lady who definitely saw me as easy prey (& I willingly fell for it) and now I’m the owner of whatever it is & 2 rugby shaped soaps to go on it. We will worry about where to put it later. I’m just over here doing my bit for the French economy. You most probably heard Gav roll his eyes out loud at this random purchase. TBH I think if I hadn’t have bought anything, I’d still be in that shop, being too English to leave empty handed.

And this blouse will forever be ‘the one that got away’ Sad times. I mean THOSE CUFFS - what on earth was I thinking by leaving it behind. MERDE!!

And that, lovely reader is where we will end today - stop while the going is good - trying to edit this on my phone, on the road with very patchy wifi!

I really really wanted to show you how do the French do colour as it’s a literal masterclass in colour palettes that work effortlessly- but it’ll have to wait! One up my sleeve for when we have a better connection & I’m free of error messages!

Very much hoping this wings its way, formatted ok & with minimal typos & arrives in your inbox looking & reading as it should but who knows what French gremlins might be at work

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday

& see you next week (hopefully but who knows)

Love

Sally xx