Vaison la Romaine

I think there's a movie that says, "If it's Tuesday this must be Belgium." In our case, it would be, "If it's Tuesday this must be Vaison la Romaine." This is still the best market in Provence - in our minds - and due to forecasts of drizzly rain today, it was much more navigable today than normally. We had no problems parking closely and no jam ups on the streets. And what was better, the rain headed in over night and was gone by the morning.

I guess due to the forecast, many vendors didn't show and therefore many tourists avoided the market as well, but all in all it was a much more enjoyable walk.

We walked the circuit and visited our favourite vendors, including Lilian. We bought some items here and Carole bought one of his new lines of table clothes - very beautiful.

One thing we didn't do with Carole and Claude last year was walk up into the old village, so that was on the itinerary. As we started our climb we came upon this cat - with attitude.

If one walks up to the chateau, the first part seems steep and extreme, but it isn't until you are almost at the chateau that the walk becomes a challenge, as Claude discovered when he took a tumble - with no appreciable injuries, thankfully.

Views from the old town are always interesting.

When we headed back down to the market, we discovered, much to our chagrin, that my favourite vendor, Vivian, was nowhere to be seen. Weather? Holidays? No idea. All we knew was that we weren't going home with either her sun dried tomatoes or olives. Quel domage! Anyway, we quit the market and headed back to Cairanne for another lunch on the terrace. Then we then dealt with the only medical issue we've had on our journeys and it wasn't Claude's knee. Carole had an issue with a burst blood vessel in one eye, so we phoned Johnsons Insurance for help. Once they recorded the info, we phoned the doctor in Cairanne. He had no time to see Carole today but told us to come to his office after 9:30 tomorrow morning, so the saga will continue. We finished off the day with a dinner of viccychoise followed by BBQed artichoke hearts and chicken legs with oven fries and beans. As usual we finished off the day with Bite Me. Claude won both games tonight - his first wins on this trip, so we won't hold it against him. Fortunes could change tomorrow.