market life

It's strange to come back from a couple of weeks away and find your city burning. The weekend rioting and looting seemed like it was happening in a different city but last night, as the violence crept closer to home, there was a very real sense of being under attack. Saying that, my area of London was pretty much unaffected. If anything, it was quieter than usual as the normal police cars and fire engines that race up my road were deployed elsewhere. It seems hard to believe that just 48 hours ago, I was what now seems like a million miles away in the hills of Provence.

Life goes on though. It's Tuesday morning in the local village which means that it's market day. The Lorgues market is one of the biggest in the area with a mixture of produce, ready-prepared food, crafts and, frankly, a lot of old rubbish. It's the town's main tourist attraction and by 11am on a Tuesday morning, the streets are solid and us regulars have beaten a hasty retreat to a coffee shop to survey the crowds. As the market has become more popular, the quality has, sadly, gone downhill. We now much prefer a market that has sprung up on a Friday. Unlike the Tuesday market, Friday's market is full of local produce and producers with crates piled high of tomatoes picked that morning or locally made honey.

All of these images come from the Friday market. Some of them are my favourite things to eat in the whole world (confit tomatoes FTW). I hope they give you some sense of place and the bounty on offer.