August 24 -- St. Jean de Luz

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We couldn't be so close to the ocean and not go see it.

Biarritz is very close to Bayonne, but we thought maybe it was more touristy and less real than St. Jean de Luz.

On the 24th, we took a train to St. Jean de Luz.

It was a cloudy day, so we took our umbrellas, but it cleared up and we never needed them.





Our first glimpse of the Atlantic.





Lots of people like this area.....







Not all of them of the ritzy sort......





Looking south toward Spain  (we were only a few miles from Spain at this point).  This is the tallest hill visible from the train station -- Larrun, perhaps?





Confetti on the ground everywhere (these are train-station stairs).









Peeking through the fence at someone's garden.







The gardener appeared behind us, and inquired if we were journalists. (We got this question a lot, which seemed a little odd, as so very many people were carrying and using cameras, and our cameras were not fancy ones......)

I responded (as usual) that we were only tourists.

It was then that she said it was her garden. I told her we were glad to have seen it.

She asked where we were from. Everyone was surprised that we were from the USA. We were told multiple times that the English may speak French, but the Americans and the Australians never do.

I told her we would show pics of her garden to people in the USA, and she seemed quite pleased.

She was very happy to chat for a bit, and told us about her daughter the orthodontist who lives [we missed that, but maybe it was nearby and near a restaurant?], and about her cousin who had lived in Chile (our hemispherical neighbors).

She wanted to know if we liked France, and, if I remember correctly, was one of many people who told us that though France was not a large country, the regions were all very different. We always agreed, and said that France was a beautiful country with a great deal of delicious food.

Then she went off, perhaps to the market, which was our immediate destination.





Before we arrived at the market we encountered a shop selling plants.

Aubergine (which is also what the English call what we call "eggplant"), 20 euro.





I did not record the prices of the peppers.....





Veronique, 30 euro.





The farmers' market, like the post office, looks much the same everywhere.

One significant difference is that things at our market are often sold by volume. Most things in French markets (with the exception of very fragile things like berries) are sold by weight.

I have no idea how much the quart of apples from my market weighs..... This makes it harder to know how much fruit to ask for.  Mime is helpful -- "this much"..........





Local custom determines if you pick out your own fruit, or if the merchant picks it for you. You can ask for fruit that is ripe now, or for some that will ripen in a day or so (if you are taking it on the train tomorrow, say, and don't want it to be totally soft just now!).





Here's another difference -- there is a very little bit of cheese at our market, and French markets usually have a lot, and a lot of variety.





We all have garlic (though at ours, it's not sold in bunches).




These must be onions -- or maybe a near relative?













We tried some of these. They were beautiful, but it wasn't the right season, and they didn't taste like much. Alas.





Here's another difference. Very little meat, and all of it frozen, at our market.

Our outdoor market is right beside an indoor market (this also seems to be common in France). Indoors, by our market, there is a butcher, but I'm not sure what they have in the way of charcuterie -- meats preserved by smoking, drying, etc........

French markets very often have fresh meat and fish (but not at the same shop), as well as charcuterie.





Neither of us is fond of melons, so I admired the shapes and moved on.





We did go in the inside market here, and it was very educational. I was very interested to learn that a lot of fish have names that are identical, or cognates, in English. Sardines are sardines, in either language. Anchovies are "anchois." Dorado is "dorade," en francais. Lots more, too, which are not coming to mind at the moment. Shellfish, on the other hand -- all the names were totally different. I wonder what cultural/linguistic/historic reasons are behind that.............

(Digression -- after the William the Conqueror and his friends invaded England, the [newly] English nobles spoke French and the hoi polloi spoke English. The people who raised them called them cattle, and the people who ate them called them "boeuf." The people who raised them called them sheep, and the people who ate them called them "mouton." This is how we came to have one name for the critter, and another name for the meat. I wonder how/why we have the same names for so many of the fish, but not for the shellfish. Maybe because shellfish are more likely to be gathered locally, while fish are caught out in the ocean, and, really, if you're in the middle of the English channel, maybe, you might as well sell them in one place as the other? End of Digession)

Back to the market in St. Jean de Luz.

Lots of corn is grown in southern France. This is the only corn bread we saw, and I'm a bit sorry we didn't buy any.





I promised you a look at "typical Basque peppers," and here they are. I don't think we had any, plain, enough to really say what they are like, but we had several dishes cooked with them, so I can say they are not hot.





I'm not sure if these are decoration or merchandise......





More cheese. Makes me want to try each one.............





In order to facilitate chronological traverse of these posts, here is a link to the post that comes after this one.

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