Place de la Republique, Arles

Today and yesterday afternoon, we visited Arles, which is 100km from where we live on the banks of the Rhone River. Yesterday's trip was to see the 'Prestige' market, where products supposedly made in Provence are showcased. I think that the only world class company that had a stall was Occitane, the bath soaps company, but otherwise there were local stalls selling all manner of foodstuffs including a variety of chestnut (marron) treats, olive and other vegetable pastes, extra virgin olive and truffle oils, and traditional sweets such a calisson made of almond marzipan. By chance, I recently read that China has just patented the calisson, one the 1 million patents that that they have registered in one year. So France will be paying royalties to China soon for something that has been a French staple for centuries. 

Being close to Christmas, we saw our first real Chistmas trees and while there were a few decorations to be had, the Christmas revelation were the Santon stalls. These Santon are clay painted nativity figures of about 7 to 9 cm tall, that go up to 55 different figures, which is a lot of activity around the manger. These include people of traditional Provencal village life such as the pig farmer, fish wife, and chestnut seller, who must have made an appearance but were not mentioned in the Bible for lack of space. 

Having done a quick spin around the various halls, we bought home three types of potage (thick vegetable soup), peach jam made on the ferme (farm), marron spread (like Nutella) and a chocolate covered marshmallow bar (sorry, couldn't resist). 

Today, having left Magnus behind yesterday, we all went to the Arles again to see the Saturday market. It is vast and takes up a large stretch of the Boulevard des Lices (I presume not the hair kind). At one end, there are clothes, but the really good stuff is the food produce. The number of vegetable stores is mind boggling (we bought 3 large green peppers for 37p/HK$4), but there are also fishmongers, where we bought some excellent small rouget (red mullet) for Euro15 per kg, olive stalls (Euro10 per kg), bakers, and all manner of cooked food stalls. However, our very first purchase was a volumous traditional woven shopping bag, which is essential for market shopping.

After some street food for lunch, we dropped off the shopping at the car and went back into the town to do some sightseeing. The stalls were already being cleared from Boulevard de Lices and the cleaning operation had began including the deployment of steet cleaning trucks which hosed down the streets. As the market disappeared a wide impressive street revealed itself with shops and restaurants in buildings dating from the 18th and 19th centuries with a few much older. The town dates back to Roman times and there are many ancient buildings still standing including a very impressively preserved arena, used today for musical and theatrical performances. We very much enjoyed walking through the narrow streets of this pictureque city, which was Van Gogh's home and the subject of many of his paintings. We will be visiting again soon as we felt that there was much left to see.