When we lived in England, the usual routine was to pop to Tesco on a Saturday afternoon and get all the groceries, toiletries and other household essentials for the week ahead. Failing that, I’d order online with Tesco to have my shopping delivered to me, or failing that, I’d pop into a supermarket on the commute home several times a week to get bits and bobs as we needed them.
How life has changed within the space of four weeks!
The Saturday routine now goes a bit like this:
Firstly we call at the Farmers’ Market, or Marché du Paysan. Here we load up with salad, fruit and vegetables, all of which is collected from loose boxes and weighed at the checkout; even the rocket and salad leaves! The Marché du Paysan also sells a fascinating selection of local cheeses, but as we’re trying to not eat dairy products at the moment, we tend to give this counter a miss!
We did, however, sample a few bottles of the local wine the other day. That night, we discovered that one bottle out of the four we bought was drinkable, the rest had to be put to one side for ‘cooking’!
Once we’ve got everything we need from the Marché du Paysan, we head up to the next village, Fayence, that has a brilliant market on Saturday mornings. We stock up on meats and chorizo from the Spanish importers, then also treat ourselves to some tapenade, olives and sun dried tomatoes to garnish our salads!
The market is a hive of activity, with stalls selling everything from herbs, to knives, to beds, to dream catchers (not on the same stall, but maybe there’s a collaboration there!)
We always have a wander around, taking in the sights and enjoying the atmosphere, before we treat ourselves to some lunch; that is, if we’ve not already filled up on the samples offered at all the food stalls!
I haven’t tried the paella yet, but I intend to do just that on Saturday…
I know all this sounds very idealistic but I do have to confess that we also do semi-regular trips to the local supermarket to buy toiletries and suchlike…
However, after reading The Hip Girl’s Guide To Homemaking, we are trying out a few of the suggested alternative cleaning products, mainly consisting of white vinegar, baking soda and lemon juice! We’ll keep you updated on how that works out!
H x
Gardening with Boys 
Helen that market looks fantastic I remember looking around places similar to that in portugal on my holidays there, they are something else aren’t they? English markets are great but nothing beats one like the one you visited! Thanks for the trip down memory lane =)