After a week away the house was empty. By empty I mean no food. Scanning the fridge and cupboard in the hope to find something remotely edible was …well, challenging.
I was lucky enough to gather enough grains for a fresh coffee and grabbed my basket.
How I love getting amongst the crowd! A mix of tourists ( oh look at these tomatoes! they actually smell like tomatoes!…how marvellous!!!), elderlies, tramps, students, housewives, sick leavers, unemployed, nutters ( literally straight out of asylum) and because it is summer, the odd music band.
This morning could have been a scene straight out of Amelie!
As I was waiting for my turn in various queues I learnt 3 things.
First was with this old lady who was telling me that she did not have the time to wait:” how dares that woman buy so much fruits!” she kept looking towards me and Ananas obviously expecting me to reply something like : “yeah I know, buying so many fruits on a fruit stall! It is really outrageous !!!… doesn’t she care how busy we are?!”
But I did not deliver and she went off in disgust. I do wonder how busy her life is and was surprised by my own patience…but I have to say the nectarine did look so juicy!
Then in an another queue…cucumber one I think.This 5.8″ goddess who did look a bit shaky shared her love life with well all of us waiting including the old folks behind. “Yes…5 years together totally thrown away…I am in pieces”
The poor girl…she nearly got me sobbing…
I am thinking about that gorgeous girl,she must be in a bad way for wanting to share it on a market stall. As I walk past my friendly olive man, Ananas stops and she won’t move until I buy olives. Here we discuss the inflation of the market, he is not impressed this morning: ” 18 euros for a kilo of handmade crisps that’s taking the piss!..I tell you what they have to be bloody good at that price!”
While paying I am so grateful his prices have not changed.
So this morning while shopping I learnt that:
- I can be patient
- It’s cheaper to discuss a breakdown with a market stall holder than a therapist
- To be vigilant this summer if I don’t want to get ripped off.
Filed under: Charente -Maritime, France, La Rochelle, La Rochelle market, market, produits du terroir
What a beautiful post – a delicious snippet of your life in la Rochelle (the fruit market at least!)
And I LOVE Amelie !!!
x
@ DM: Thanks, I hope your birthday this week-end brings you a little bit of exotism
Ohhh La Rochelle in the summer time. One of the best places to be! Looking back I wished I’d spent more time at the markets, I was too scared of the people like the woman you describe who was outraged! Angry French women scare me!
@Princesse: Coucou te revoilou! I hope you are well…these old ladies are terrible dragons!
lol! yes, they are dragons that’s true, but we need them all the same, I’m looking rather forward to passing hours at the market while being pushed and shoved and growled at by grumpy dragon women who are retired but say they are very, very, very short of time!!
I Love France!
Note to self – Buy Amelie DVD having just accidentally recorded over video version, don’t tell my Goddess.
Sounds wonderful!
Lol, I love your conclusions! I surprise myself sometimes with my patience as well. Oh, and J’adore Amelie!!! (minus the no food part haha)
P E: You must be mad…well I know you are you are going to love it here!!!
…it is very nice round yours too 
DP:I hate when “young” Kevin does that!
Mlle Mitchell: Enchantee, thank you for visiting and do come back
In 2005 me and my aging parents went to England to take my dad back before it’s too late. I insisted that we go to Paris for two days so i could see The Lourve, a relative handled the arrangements and we spent two days in Opera. While I enjoyed the south of England, seeing where my dad came from, where he went to school, and seeing the farmhouse outbuildings where he lived after the blitz too their house, it was France that I loved and has made me a Frenchophile ever since. The latest issue of France magazine has an article on La Rochelle with pictures of all the landmarks and mentions the festival too. How lucky you are to live there, I plan on trying to retire to France and using the Eurostar to go up to Prague and down to London. I hope I can make that happen somehow, right now I study french with Rosetta stone and dream.
Cheers
Glen
Glen thank you for your comment and insight on your life – I had not read that post for a long time, you are right we are so very lucky, the olive man has gone and I don’t seem to visit the market quite as much as I used to when I first got here…a good reality check for me I think
How far are you from retiring?