Close to home. Saturday 18th July 2009.

We stayed pretty close to home today. JR and I popped out to the markets in Beaune and left AJ snoozing - he has had his fair share of markets I think.

The Saturday morning Beaune markets knocked my socks off. They would have to be one of the most beautiful ever. Who ever wrote the piece I read about Beaune and Dijon markets being so wonderful knew exactly what they were talking about. Beaune is set in the covered Les Halles marketplace which is quite small. The market is so big on Saturdays, it spills outside into the square and upand down the surrounding streets, some of it backdropped by Hotel-Dieu.

I chatted to the lovely Fabrice form a stall named 'Indian Summer Sky'. He and his wife sell specialities of southern France. I bought a few lollipops from them as AJ has a mate coming over this afternoon. Fabrice gave me a bag of pistachio, raspberry and almond nougat to try, a speciality of Montelimar in the beautiful south. The almond was my favourite, soft and not too sweet. Too much sweetness in nougat just kills it for me so it was nice to taste such a good one.

There was a stall only selling onions and garlic, the range they had was visually so beautiful. The garlic was displayed in rustic bunches and some were the softest shade of pink, just gorgeous. I bought my supply of onions for the week from the stall it looked so nice.

Summer fruit was everywhere and I couldn't resist to take some home to enjoy. I bought a bag of ripe apricots and JR chose rock melon which was in plentiful supply. They smelled so good, I always think that rock melon smells exactly as it tastes, don't you?



Bees know when they are onto a good thing, and they enjoyed the decadence of lounging around on top of a Moelleux au Fruits cake, I also found one snooping around a honey stand trying to get under a lid and into the honey pot.

Just like in Dijon yesterday, the girolle mushrooms were plentiful. I found a basket holding a good quantity of black truffles too, the first truffles I have seen at a market this year. They were mine for €30 per 100 grams, should I choose.

A friend of the family who live in Combertault brought his nneighbor over to meet AJ today at 2. It didn't take them long to warm to eachother, before long they were off on the bikes around the village and down the dirt track that leads behind the house. They had a great time and they enjoy the same kind of things so no doubt this won't be their last meeting. We dropped Jeremy home at 6 as we were taking part in the next petanque tournament (sounds so serious doesn't it) with Bruno across the road. JR and I are really hooked on the game so watch out when we return home. If you are within striking distance you may get roped into a challenge. We lost one game to two but did really well for only our second time on the square.