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| Fresh fruit |
This morning, we woke up and decided to take a 20 minute ride to Divonne, France, where every Sunday there's an outdoor market. Here you can buy just about everything you can imagine. If you can find the space to walk!
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| An accordionist serenading the market |
We arrived around 10 and by then, the market was in full swing. First stop was a vegetable and fruit stall where we tried out some olives and bought a fresh olive tapenade for dipping with bread. Very fresh and very strong. Next, we (meaning CW) visited a wine vendor (just because he happened to be at the entrance to the market, he spoke English, and it's 5 o'clock somewhere). He's been coming to the market every Sunday for 16 years and was quite chatty.
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| Julia's new outfit |
As we walked along, SweetSwissTeen found a clothing stall with some frilly, flowing skirts and tops. She was quite excited and ended up getting a pretty blue and white outfit. Later, she found some blue Converse tennis shoes to go along with it. They will balance out the 'daintiness' of the lace. Right?
The smells were great (mostly). We walked past one booth that was nothing but spices laid out in bowls which you bought in bulk. A number of stands sold rotisserie chickens and pork. Of course, there were many cheese stands (or as All American Boy put it, "stinky cheese stands") and some great bread stands--we purchased a chocolate chip-filled baguette that was great. One area of the market had a concentration of seafood--everything from oysters to fish to sea urchins to squid and octopus (with the heads still on).
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| The spice stand |
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| The market fills up |
CW found a shwarma stand and ordered a turkey shwarma. It looked wonderful, but as he walked away from the stand and took a bite, he realized that the shaved meat wasn't cooked completely. After his chicken sushi adventure in Japan a couple of years ago, CW decided that discretion was the better part of valor and disposed of it. Too bad, really. Next time CW thinks he'll try the paella.
By the time we had been through the market, it was about noon and it was very crowded. So we left and headed down to the lake in Divonne where the kids rode their scooters around the lake and mom and dad had a nice walk.
Spring is in full bloom here and we'll be going back to market often!
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The Paella Lady
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Sounds like a cool fun place, but I'd avoid under cooked meat as well. And I work with meat equipment so I should know.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a fun outing. Never order sepia if you find yourself in Spain. Unless the idea of gourmet includes tentacles hanging off of your plate.
ReplyDeleteIsn't the lake at Divonne wonderful? We stayed in the long stay apartments just across the road. There is a super ropes course park at the far end of the street across from the lake. It looks like a cheap kiddie amusement park but the ropes course was fantastic and the kids and I had a wonderful time up in the trees. Did you see the solar system model on the far side of the lake? Great memories there. Somehow, we never saw the market... guess we missed out on something for sure!
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