Most towns and large villages have a large market once a week, and in larger towns, markets may take place twice a week, or even every day. Many French towns boast a covered market (marché couvert), which is a permanent structure, occupied by an array of market stalls; in a classic “marché couvert”, most of the stalls will sell fresh fruit and vegetables, and some of the stall-holders will also be local market-gardeners, selling their own produce among other products imported from further afield. There is often a cluster of good restaurants to be found close to the covered market in a French town, and chefs will each morning pay a visit and bring back boxes of the freshest fruit and vegetables.
Stalls you are likely to find include butchers, bakers, and delicatessens offering local specialities. In Paris, fruit and vegetable markets spring up on the pavements under the trees beside wide boulevards on different days of the week, often on Saturday or Sunday morning.

Large weekly markets are attended both by local stallholders, and by a range of specialised traders who will set up their stall on a different market each day of the week. Very often, the larger town in an area will have its weekly market on Saturdays, and smaller towns will have theirs on other days; in these smaller markets, the number of itinerant stall-holders will depend on the number of other markets on the same day within their area, and the relative interest in each of these markets. Thanks to these stallholders, larger weekly markets have a rich range of specialised stalls, offering organic vegetables, food specialities from the region or from other countries, cheese, wine, clothes, garden plants, wine straight from the producer, honey and a lot more.

A few markets, notably specialised markets, have acquired a national reputation; there is the famous flea market at the Porte de Clignancourt in Paris, the flower market in Nice, the Christmas markets in Strasbourg, the olive markets in Provence or the fish market round the old port in Marseilles. There are wine markets in Bordeaux, and famous gastronomic markets in Perigueux, the heart of French truffle and foie-gras country. But generally speaking, markets are a local or regional event, attended by local producers, craftsmen or traders, and as such they are not the type of event that has any reason to acquire a national reputation; markets are just a part of the French way of living.

Obviously, the fruit, vegetables and local produce in general that are the mainspring of most markets, and the smaller the market, the more it will tend to be an outlet for local producers. In rural areas, like Gascony, it is still possible to find markets where small farmers sell just their own produce. Vegetables and fruit in season, flowers, perhaps farm-produced cheese, home-made bread, eggs, and even a rabbit or two, or week-old chicks. Although the number of small farms in France has fallen dramatically in recent decades, there is still an elderly generation of smallholders who attend weekly markets in the way they have been doing for the past thirty or forty years. Yet in spite of France’s attachment to its rural heritage, the smallholders selling their produce at a weekly market are survivors from the old rural way of life. It is unusual to see young smallholders on a market in rural France, and while the market itself, as a tradition, is not under threat, the nature of small rural markets is changing, as is rural France in general. In twenty years’ time, there will still be plenty of markets in France; but will there be as many, and will they still be rich in tradition as they are today? I hope so.

Lectoure street market takes place every Friday. Fleurance on a Tuesday and Saturday, Auch and Condom every Friday, in fact you can visit a local market every single day in this beautiful region of France. A detailed list is provided in our gite information binder at La Vieille Source.

There will be an additional concert in this series at Abbey de Flaran on 26th September.

For more information visit www.nma32.com

Cuivro’Foliz Fleurance (Gers), offers dazzling brass, rhythm and musical performances. Over the weekend prepare to enjoy performances from : Ambrassband (Belgium), les Astiaous (Lot et Garonne), Batunga & The Subprimes (Ile de France), Beautiful People Fanfare Club (Ile de France), Brassmatics (Ile de France), Fanfaronne the Rock (Rhône Alpes), Mac à Dame (Vic Fezensac), Pastors of Muppets (Bordeaux), La Tormenta (Toulouse), Zephyrologie (Le Mans)… and more!

The musical journey begins on Friday at 7pm with The Sound Off, a visual spectacle with brass bands and delicious tapas to celebrate the start of the weekend.

Saturday from 5pm there’ll be a parade to fanfare the arrival of the groups. Come and enjoy metal, jazz, swing, funk, folk, rock, and Afro beat. There’ll be something for everyone.

Sunday at 10am it’s the Fleurance farmers’ market and the bands will parade around until midday and perform the famous Corrid’Oie in the church forecourt. The fun continues into the afternoon with the warmth of the brass rhythms. So why not add some great music to your weekend and enjoy a friendly atmosphere and good food. Admission is free!

For more information go to www.cuivrofoliz.com

For more information about this year’s programme and artists go to www.country-musique.com.

In 1858 Lourdes went from being a small village in the Pyrenees to a global attraction. This was when the peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, had her life-altering visit to a cave with her siblings to gather wood. According to reports “Lifting her head, she saw, in the crevice of the rock, a young girl, surrounded by light, who looked at her and smiled.”
This was the first of eighteen visions Bernadette claimed to have had of the Virgin Mary. Bernadette eventually became a nun in Nevers. Today the cave is just at the base of the Basilica. Streams of believers, many in wheelchairs, swarm the cave where Bernadette had her visions to taste the water from the spring and many come with hopes for a miracle.

In the town away from the spiritual atmosphere you’ll find numerous souvenir shops, some selling tacky religious trinkets (think framed velvet Jesus art and hot pink plastic rosaries!) but even an atheist could appreciate the splendour of the enormous Basilica of the Rosary. It was built in response to the hordes that began to descend on the city after the Virgin Mary sightings and it is an amazing example of architecture. The city is also in a prime location. The Pyrenees are steps away to the south with Spain close by.

The main attractions at Lourdes are the cave (grotto) where the sightings occurred and the Basilica of the Rosary built to watch over it. It is free to enter and a must see on your trip. This Romanesque style cathedral is one of the largest in the world. When you scale the massive winding ramp to the Basilica, turn around and look straight ahead and you will see Lourdes Castle and Pyrenean Museum.  If  these buildings weren’t overshadowed by the Basilica and the Virgin Mary sightings, they would surely be the town’s top attractions.

Although Lourdes dates back to Roman times very little remains from that era. Primarily it is a fascinating gothic fortified chateau. It also is home to a wonderful museum detailing life in the Pyrenees.

The House of Bernadette Soubirous’ parents features a mill, the kitchen, Bernadette’s bedroom, photographs and other memorabilia of the childhood life of Lourdes most famous daughter. 

Other places to visit near Lourdes include:

Argeles-Gazost a few minutes from Lourdes. This is a small and charming village with a quaint street lined with boutiques and cafes, a casino and thermal spa.

The Pyrenean foothill city of Pau is about a 45-minute drive from Lourdes. Famous for being the birthplace of King Henry IV, you can still visit Pau Chateau where he was born, and see the famous tortoise-shell cradle he slept in.

Or how about visiting Tarbes only a 20-minute drive from Lourdes. This city is surprisingly large considering its rural Pyrenees location.

In our gite, La Vielle Source, you’ll find local maps to help plan your daytrip to Lourdes as well as a detailed guide book about the famous town. As a family we have visited Lourdes several times over the years and can advise you the best places to park, what are the must see parts and how to go about bathing in the Holy Waters. We can also advise where to buy inexpensive souvenirs, small decorative water bottles to take to the spring and fill with Holy Water and gifts from your trip to take home for friends and family.

In the beginning of the 15th century, woad was found in England as well as in the northern part of Europe, where it was mainly used as a dye. The woad leaves were harvested in September and brought to a special mill where they were crushed to produce a paste that was left outside and turned over to ferment for several weeks. The moulders would then form balls (cocagnes) the size of a grapefruit, and leave them to dry in the sunshine for four months. The cocagnes would shrink to the size of a golf ball, become hard and dark brown or black. This was the only way to preserve the blue pigment as it would have to last during travel, sometimes for months, to dyers throughout Europe.
In France during the Renaissance, the southwest Occitania region became the very famous “Pays de Cocagne” , renowned as the region of milk and honey, as all you had to do was lie on your back and watch your wealth dry in the sun. The local woad merchants became extremely rich and built magnificient mansions, castles and churches.
With the arrival of foreign indigos this very quickly reduced the fortunes made with woad, and eventually indigos entirely replaced the woad dye until the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte. Woad was the chosen fabric dye for his splendid uniforms.
Towards the middle of the 19th century, with the arrival of synthetic dyes, the natural dyes such as madder root and woad became less popular.

The workshop and gallery for Bleu de Lectoure is open all year round.

For those who wish to see and experience the authentic “Pastel de Toulouse”, and take home a souvenir woad plant’s unique pastel blue that made the city’s fortune during the XVth et XVIth centuries, then why not visit “La Fleurée de Pastel”.  As the name suggests it’s in Toulouse, at 20 rue de la Bourse, just around the corner from the “Hôtel d’Assézat”. There you’ll discover yet another gem of Toulouse’s “pastellière” architecture, the Hôtel Delfau, built in 1495. In this boutique, under splendid gothic vaulting, you can choose between silks and cottons, jewellery and decorative objects, water-colours, inks and paintings… all derived from the authentic Pastel. You’ll also find books about  the epic tale of this “golden Blue”. It’s a magical place where, for a few instants, you’ll relive the charm of an era of splendour, elegance and seduction.

“Many people don’t know where Gascony is, unsurprising really, as it is the old name given to parts of the Gers and Ariège. You can drive round for days without spotting another GB car number plate in mid-August and pass miles and miles of towering sunflower fields before sitting down to lunch at a small auberge where almost every course includes duck meat (even the omelettes) and a good bottle of wine. When I visited the area last year, the week after the Blairs had left, the locals were still raving about his visit. ‘Monsieur Blair was eating lunch right off this very checked tablecloth last week. Such a nice family’…

The Guardian

Gascony – a “triangle” running south of the Garonne, west of Toulouse and down into the foothills of the Pyrenees – has at its heart the Gers. As départements go, this one easily levels with the Dordogne for gentle hills and rolling farmlands, for slow winding rivers and avenues of poplars. You can crawl from château to château, comparing the merits of one Armagnac dégustation against another. Or, as in the Dordogne, respond to the many roadside hoardings promising farm-made confits and foie gras. And yet you would be hard-pressed to find a GB number plate here…

The Telegraph

South-west France is home to exhilarating ingredients, wines, markets and food festivals. Where much of foodie France suffers from a dose of the smugs, the little-hyped region of Gers (Gascony, as was) offers sincere welcome and genuine discoveries. Wines like Madiran, dishes like l’aligot (imagine the silkiest, creamiest puree of yellow potatoes forked through with fresh Cantal cheese and a French kiss of garlic) and abundant affordable foie gras are produced in green countryside that rolls and dips before sharpening into the Pyrenees…

Guardian Travel

If an Englishman’s ideal French home is in Provence, many Frenchmen say they would prefer to be in Gascony. There are fewer foreigners, for a start (which means it helps to have a smattering of the language), and it is far more authentic. Gascony is no longer a distinct administrative area, but it covers an area including Bordeaux, Bayonne, Pau and Auch.
Within easy distance of the Pyrenees and the Atlantic coast, the area has something for everyone, with beautiful rolling countryside, a relaxed, friendly way of life, wonderful stone houses, a temperate climate ….. good wines and gastronomic delights…

Times Online

“The countryside is unspoilt and the wildlife abundant. Mass tourism hasn’t made any impact here at all and you find yourself wandering round villages that are like pristine period-drama sets, with all visual evidence of the modern age removed, not quite believing that in high season you have the place to yourself.
The fortified village of Bassoues d’Armagnac would, in any other part of Europe, be essential itinerary for coach parties and festooned with car parks and postcard kiosks.
Here it is deserted – a small Café des Sports serving bowls of steaming duck to the locals, blissfully unaware of the staggering beauty that surrounds it.”…

Mail Online… Howard Goodall ,“Gascony and all that Jazz”

Here’s an extract from the article in Families Cheshire November/December 2009 edition entitled Holiday Time, Family friendly France by Esther Prescott :

…” we did what many people planning to travel with children do these days we Googled  “family friendly holidays”…with a 3 year old and a baby in tow we opted for La Vieille Source,  situated in the Gascony region of France. A beautiful open plan apartment set above the old stable block of an 18th century manor house. It is within walking distance of  the local village for a coffee or a bite to eat. For us what made this property so fantastic was that the owners, being parents themselves, had really thought about the needs of families and had kitted the property out with plastic plates, bowls and cutlery, steriliser, BabyDan, baby monitor, high chair, full size cot and loads more, which saved on the packing. The heated swimming pool, trampoline, sandpit, swings, climbing set , books, toys, and DVDs meant there was a lot for our eldest to do if we wanted to just spend a lazy day “at home”.  We couldn’t have asked for nicer hosts, nothing was too much trouble for them - we sent a shopping list ahead of our arrival and they called to check the details, they provided us with a picnic rug for an outing one day and  babysat – even dropping us off and picking us up from the restaurant”…

The fair is a crowd puller with plenty of stalls to browse and sample:

stalls for local tradespeople

handicrafts and regional products

agricultural machinery

delicious wines and regional specialities

vehicles and farming craft demonstrations

hot food stalls

Cit’en Jeu is a day of games and activities with plenty of variety. Nobody is forgotten. From the youngest children, parents, teens and grandparents, everyone can find a game or activity they can enjoy.

Some of this year’s attractions include:

Fishing simulator, Sphinx & Titanic giant inflatables

Tree climbing, Bungee Trampoline

Maze, Toy quad bikes & Go karts

Ball pits, Dressing up

Face painting, Fun with foam

Workshops to  craft your own wooden toy, Photography with the Lectoure photography centre

Medieval minting, Clay modelling

Traditional board games, Skill & strategy games

Educational games, Archery, Crossbow & Shooting range.

Sports games, Interactive demonstrations from the Lectoure Judo club

Table Tennis circle, Thrills & spills with jousting pirates

Have a go Rodeo for adults & children

Big loop cycle ride, Wagon rides, Walk through history with the tourist office

Family workshops in Latin calligraphy, Visit to the archaeological museum at Lectoure

There are good on-site facilities too and the entry fee is just 4€ per person.