sunday morning's at sète

What I really love about cafés in France is the relaxed attitude towards bringing your own food. It's more than tolerated, it's actively encouraged. We often go to Sète on a Sunday morning & always to the same café, waiting for a table if needs be. We bring pastries brought from a local boulangerie & sometimes stay long enough to order a plate of oysters & mussels from les Halles across the road. The waiter then brings us each a glass of wine that he's chosen, always a different variety for me & another for F.

I spotted these biscuits on our last visit. As a child we called them 'snail biscuits' & I spent many an afternoon baking & promptly eating them.

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a sunday in les cévennes

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chez bebelle

Chez Bebelle is a café / bistro in the midst of Les halles in Narboone. We breakfasted there a few Sundays ago and liked it so much decided to go back for lunch as well.
What at 10am had been a quiet Sunday morning café, had at midday turned into a mass of people, with groups of families & friends drinking wine and eating plates of charcuterie or fruits de mer brought over from neighbouring stalls.
We shared a table with a couple who'd come up from Beziers for the day.
It was very good fun and I ran out of film. Problem solved by nippng across the road to the tabac for a couple of rolls of kodak gold.

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l'hiver

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old school

On Sunday morning we ventured out on a trip to Narboone, about an hour's drive west of Montpellier.
We were aiming for the covered market but we walked through this brilliant old fashioned bits & bobs market first.
Those slippers look as though they've been put out every weekend since the 70s!

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potatoes • potatoes • potatoes

The weather has been so wet & grey here recently that we've been exploring the covered markets in our area. On Sunday mornings in France about the only places open are covered markets!
These shots are from Les halles in the old centre of Nîmes. It's a superb market, full of lots of old fashioned stalls. Something we'd not seen before were the potatoe, onion & garlic stalls. There were at least 3 of them in the market. We wondered if all French markets used to have such stalls?

What are your favourite market food stalls?

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I've been seeing lots of dreamy delicate images on the net lately. Maybe because its offically spring now! It's made me think of Les Cévennes and how much I really want to return to this restaurant and to this vue.

les halles de béziers

If you happen to find yourself in Bezier of a Sunday morning, the best thing to do is to head to the covered market. It's an old school wrought iron market, filled with cheese, fish, fruit & vege, meat and local produce stalls. We brought a fresh out of the oven pizza and took it to eat at the market bar - La Gargote des Halles.
In fact on the blackboard the staff have written a note to say they're happy to cook your market purchases for a small charge. A bit like charging corkage or BYO (bring your own - alcohol) a common occurance back in the day in New Zealand.

Les Halles de Béziers
Place Pierre Semard
34500 Béziers, France
+33 (0) 4 67 49 25 45

Before the snow

Some photos from Sunday morning breakfast at Sète, followed by a walk around the wharves, along some of the canals, up the hill to the cemetry where Paul Valery is buried and back down to the city art gallery, which wasn't open until the afternoon.

Snow was forecast for Montpellier today but our morning was full of sunshine. I left for London late afternoon and when I landed had a text from F to say it was snowing. Of course I didn't believe him as despite forecasts, it never snows here. He sent me photo proof and it's snowing heavily even as I write this.
Who knows, Montpellier may have it's first 'snow day' tommorrow!

Sommières

Sommières is a typical Languedoc town about 20 mins from Montpellier on the back road to Nîmes. It has a medieval centre, a river running through it, a town square lined with these trees you find everywhere in France, a chocolaterie and an old school café.
It was charming except for the fact it was minus -2 degrees and I was gloveless.

Happy weekend everyone!

finisterre

New Year's day we went for a very windy walk along the beach at La Grande Motte.
Perfect for blowing away the cobwebs!

In anticipation of a trip to London (by train) next week, I rewatched St Etienne's
Finisterre. Such a great London film.

place du peyrou

In Louis XIV day the Place du Peyrou was the highest point in Montpellier. In fact no building could be higher than the statue of Louis on his horse! It's still has a Versailles like feel about the space, with it's formal avenues of trees and grand statues.
It's also a great place to sit and look out over the roof tops of Montpellier.