Provence Eating

I'm back from a wonderful week in a small village in Provence, which was only marred slightly by the fact I spent the first half completely incapacitated by Tonsillitis and Quinsy (an unfortunate but not hugely unusual happening, as I suffer from ME). The weather was fantastic, I cooked every day and, when I could eat again, enjoyed some really great meals in our beautiful little gite we had hired for the week.

View of the gite from the back road

One of my favourite parts about leaving England is always the supermarkets in other parts of the world, I love seeing the produce and always pick up some things to bring home. I was so impressed with the selection in this part of France. We drove a few times to a large Auchan Hypermarche, where I spent hours looking at the impressive selections of vegetables, meat and seafood. The prices were great as well, we were very well fed and bought whatever we wanted for a far cheaper price than we'd have been able to back in the UK. Not to mention the fact that most of what we bought just isn't available in England like it is in France, leaving me lamenting the fact that beautiful pates, rillettes and huge shell-on prawns just aren't common place in the Asdas and Sainsburys back home.

Our lunches were simple but delicious spreads of pates, cheeses, cold meats and breads and on one day this omelette made with tomatoes, watercress, onions, asparagus and comte cheese. The evening meals were usually barbequed, with some kind of starter (often seafood) and big salads.

As well as enjoying the more traditional foods France has to offer I tried lots of snack foods as well, including the obligatory macarons which we bought from a small bakery in the nearby town of Carpentras (not as good as the ones we can get here in London from Laduree) an amazing meringue that tasted of popcorn! Lots of cakes, eclairs and creamy things and Lays cheeseburger crisps! Which were really good, but a little too sweet.

  
And this. It was described as a kebab on the menu of a small cafe in Carpentras. When it came it was a huge baguette filled with kebab meat, mayonnaise and crispy chips. For €4.30! It was so carby and heavy but so, so good.

 

The town of Carpentras, a 10 minute drive from where we were staying, was beautiful. It has a huge cathedral, lots of amazing architecture and many sweet boutique shops. But my favourite thing was the hand painted signs I saw everywhere I looked.

In the church my Mum lit a candle for her mother, my grandmother, Marika. Who was a fan of cathedrals and their art and, as cookery editor of the Sunday Telegraph until she died in 1982, a big fan of food also!

The shopping was so good in Carpentras, we came away with some Le Creuset expresso mugs and an amazing rhubarb scented candle that smells exactly like stewed rhubarb!

Now I'm trying to cook away the post holiday blues!