A day of two halves!

From 8.30 to early afternoon it was market day here in Aix En-Provence so like the many locals and other tourists we took to the streets to have a poke around.

We have been to numerous markets in Europe however this may well be the largest we have visited as it started in a square (Place du Verdun) in the old town, continued down a side street (Rue Thiers) and then all the way down Cours Mirabeau, a distance I estimate in total to be around 600m with stalls circling Verdun, singularly in the rue but on both sides of Cours M.

It was set out so that the fresh fruit and veggie stalls were in one area and the artisan products in another, there being numerous clothing stalls (mainly for women), and stalls for jewellery, local soaps, linen, ceramics, shoes and bags, hats, spices, cheeses etc. In fact a woman could arrive naked and buy all she needed to present herself at the local theatre looking very tidy and at a relatively economic cost.

It took us around 2 hours to get through the market as many stalls were given a good examination - the market repeats on a Thursday and Saturday so whatever we missed will be seen on one of those two days!

This afternoon we are on the road to Les Baux-de-Provence for a touch of culture by visiting Carrieres de Lumineres and in February we booked a restaurant in Paradou for our evening meal tonight, a restaurant well recommended on Facebook and one where you are served whatever they are cooking that day - should/could be fun.

As Paradou is 70kms from here and the meal is not until 8pm it will be a late night for us, so part two of the day will be posted later!