Saturday July 31st.
Today I am a sunflower. No, really. I have this long kaftan - it’s Georgette and it is bright golden yellow with some abstract flashes of burnt orange and dark forest green. I never wear it, except for once on our honeymoon nearly six years ago, because beloved doesn’t like kaftans. But I slipped it on this morning and discovered Tony got ponchos and kaftans mixed up - and he LOVES it ( but still hates ponchos!). I feel like the world’s biggest sun flower but the colours are soooo Provence and it is wonderfully cool. So, at Tony’s suggestion I wear it out. It’s market day in Uzes. That’s a big thing in this part of the world. Unlike the fiasco of last Saturday, this time we are prepared and go early. I stand out in these colours - they’re hardly subtle - and a seller at the flower stall holds up a bunch of sunflowers and says “C’st le meme coleur.” and smiles. Er ….yep….exactly what I thought.
The Uzes market is a sensory overload. Because the medieval city is round, the place des herbes - the town square - is right at its centre. Today it houses all the food stalls. There are entire stalls dedicated to herbs and spices……not the type you buy in cellophane packets in the supermarket. There are more kinds of salami than you could possible imagine and a bread stall with at least forty kinds of bread. Another stall has only lavendar…..mostly dried….. In varying shades and even some pink and white. Just gorgeous. The colours and smells are overwhelming and I snap away with the camera for everyone back home. Kelly wants a china Cicada….it’s the symbol of Provence….but I can’t find one that I think is just right for her. Mostly French children are well behaved but there is one throwing such a tantrum that her screams can be heard through the entire town. Tony says “cricket bat job” though he’d never raise a hand, let alone a bat, to anyone. We drink coffee at our regular haunt and browse the other stalls, mostly clothes and tablecloths. A hurdy gurdy man is cranking out a tune and the little city is full of life…as it has been for over a thousand years. It’s magical experience but I buy nothing except a melon and some Roquefort Noir. Back home we have it spread on bread with fig jam….another sensation…this time an assault on the taste buds.
It’s uncomfortably hot. The locals predict a storm in the next day or two and I am reminded of how we were flooded in at Nimes at roughly the same time 5 years ago. With no breeze and little relief from the small electric fan we bought, we crash out on the bed. The sunflower dress wilts on the floor.
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