Marché provençal

Like the market in Ventimiglia, the marché provençal in Antibes seems to cater for cross-border visitors. The stall-holders handle Italian and French with equal aplomb. Prices in Ventimiglia are quite a bit lower than those in Antibes: is it a question of expectations, or is it because of fiscal burdens on the French side?

The Antibes market seems better stocked in saucissons and hams, also in variety as regards cheeses, but the Ventimiglia market is far better for vegetables, salads and flowers.

Customers in Italy take their time, buying very small quantities of lots of different things, and asking pointed questions about taste and quality. It is worth waiting in the queue (notional) just to listen to the good humoured repartee. On the French side, there is more aggression, with little old ladies lethally carrying out the market equivalent of 'road rage': not to be messed around with if you value your tibias in one piece! Especially if they are equipped with both poodle and wheelie shopping bag (with vicious rear facing spikes).

High points of the Antibes market: a saucisson seller who boasts that his wares are 'bombes atomiques': don't know about the megaton yields, but the taste fall-out is persistent and glows in the dark. Wonderful! Some of the smaller fruit and vegetable stalls are also really good, even if they have very little on display. A nice lady from the Auvergne sold us some wonderful carrots and just about the best Savoy cabbage we have ever eaten. An old lady from Biot sells local fruit such as blood oranges and (earlier in the season) ripe figs.

After the hue and cry, escaping the tin shed and heading to the sea-wall and looking across to Nice, with Azure sea and the snowy mountains above just confirms that paradise does exist, and that cutting through a side-street is all that it takes to get there.

Low points: bad ceramics and other lurid 'art' work, including some Calder-esque wire sculptures of love-making positions; the usual wafts of patchouli and other now very dated hippy tat.