I didn't mention that our hiking trip in Provence was mainly in Le Luberon National Park. Lots of villages in the area. Best times to go are May or October - no heat, few tourists, and off-season prices. Plenty of gnarly mountains which can be considered foothiils of the Alps to the east.
Mrs. BD's favorite village was Lourmarin. It's surrounded by villas and farms. Expensive to buy there. I doubt Lourmarin is crowded in peak season because there are few places to stay unless you rent a villa.
My topic for this post is routine shopping in a village. In Lourmarin, market day is Friday. All of the producers and farmers and clothing-sellers assemble in a different village each day. No supermarkets anywhere near. Clothing, fish, meat - everything. The marketplace is filled with people and dogs, and by 4 pm it's disassembled from the village square and moved on.
For starters, the only daily food store in Lourmarin is the place below. True, they do make a lot of those great 4" deep kiches each morning but they are sold by 9 am. I think people drive once in a while to regular supermarkets in the suburbs of Aix or Avignon for supplies in the way we drive to Costco.
Some of my Friday marketplace pics are below the fold -
Plenty of pics etc. of the Friday market below the fold -
Those are Coquilles St. Jacques at the top:
