The town of Fontainbleau has a huge market three mornings a week, Sunday being the biggest. We’ve been many times with Mary and Gilles, but last Sunday we ventured into it on our own. I won’t say it was without its moments, but we were successful:
In the plastic container is paella, made in two huge paella pans right in the market. The woman makes two pans of paella and when it’s sold, she goes home. It was delicious, as good as we’ve ever had in Spain.
Other purchases:
– cherries, which are finally in season and really, really good.
– radishes.
– lettuce. I’ll take a picture of a head of lettuce by itself sometime; they are huge and Laurie says the best she’s ever seen.
– cheese – three kinds plus a local specialty: a concoction of cheese and other stuff that ends up as a dessert. This is the second cheese dessert I’ve had, and we’ve seen several others we’ll give a try.
The only language problem we had was when the cherry man told me the price and I didn’t quite understand. It was 5.90€; I got the 5€ part, but in French, 90 is “quatre-vingt dix;” that is, “four twenties and ten.” I just didn’t pick that out, and the clerk, with humor, took the correct change from my handful of coins. Could have been worse, I guess: 98 is “quatre-vingt dix-huit:” four twenties, ten and eight. Crazy language!
I really enjoyed catching up on your blogs today. Beautiful commentary with great pictures. Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us!