Peter Mayle is the author of eleven books on Provence, including the best selling non-fiction works A Year in Provence and Toujours en Provence. He was recently awarded the Legion d'Honneur by the French government. He lives in Provence with his wife. Tanya Ivey from Blue Sky Living caught up with him.
When author Jamie Ivey spent a year researching his third book about Provencal markets, he discovered that life behind the picturesque stalls was not as rosy as it seemed....
Early one Sunday morning in July the first whisper of the day’s heat stirs through the narrow streets of L’Isle sur La Sorgue. The backs of vans clatter open, olives are decanted from vast plastic vats into pretty wicker baskets, table legs snap open and parasols are fanned out like peacock’s tails. A trader stabs open a fresh cardboard box full of jars of tapenade and sun dried tomato paste. He wipes each individually with a cloth and mounts them on his stall in a rainbow of Provencal colours. Still the vans keep on coming - honey vendors, lavender sellers, fruit and vegetable men - the space evaporates as the blistering sun levers the weak moon below the horizon.
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