Sunday, May 25, 2014 - Day 3

This morning we went to the huge farmers market in town. It's gigantic, stretching across probably 20 blocks of the town and some side streets. It's more like a flea market than a farmers market, as there are many more booths with clothes, ceramics, jewelry, etc than food booths. But there were definitely plenty with food.

The food vendors were pretty incredible. The vegetables and fruits were extensive, although I was surprised that there were no mushroom vendors. We still were able to get some great veggies for a big salad.

There were many cheese vendors and cured meat vendors. We picked up a nice salami made with chanterelle mushrooms. Then at one of the cheese vendors we got a chunk of local hard cheese from Noyes. These two will be great together.

Our last stop was a shop that sells local olive oils and olives. We got a great oil made with black olives from Noyes and another from Les Baux des Provence. They were more fruity and distinctive than anything I've had in the states.

We stopped at home to drop off our bounty before heading out to lunch. We opened up the house doors as is the custom here to let the air in. While we were doing stuff in the kitchen, Jan noticed that one of the ducks had come from the rive and walked into the house! This was the mother duck who must have been hungry from sitting on her nest. We shooed her out and gave her some bread, and then closed the doors. She kept trying to get in, walking around the back porch from door to door. These things must get fed a lot around here, that they've become this domesticated.

We went to the town of Bonnieux for lunch. It's built on the mountainside and looks across the valley to the town of Gordes. I don't know what causes the building of a town on the side of a hill, but usually there's a medieval castle connected with it. I didn't see one of those here. It's quite impressive how steep the streets and walkways are here.

We stopped at a winery outside of Bonnieux called Les Eydins. We had a bottle of their wine with lunch and it was excellent. It was unusual for the winery to be open on a Sunday, but it was. We got two bottles of red, two of an excellent white, and two of a great sweet white.

We spent the late afternoon sitting in the back yard, with Jan feeding the ducks potato chips. After she stopped, they came up and walked around the back yard, looking for some food. They eventually went away, but they're not too afraid of people anymore.

We used our farmers market bounty for a great salad for dinner. It went well with a Les Eydins white.

I just noticed that my travel adapter is overheating and starting to smell. That's not a good sign. If I can't find another one, this blog will end in a hurry as I'm going to run out of power quickly.

Here's the photos of the day.