Contributor blog post by Ashley Tinker: Due to it’s wonderful ambiance, charm and compliment of many great shops and wine bars, St-Remy-de-Provence is a very popular weekly market. Hundreds of vendors line up every week and many, if they aren’t regulars, wait from 6 am onwards merely in the hope …

Persimmon or ‘Kaki’ fruit. These beautiful fruits are meant to be picked after all the leaves have fallen off the tree. When I asked my local greengrocer what to do with them – she picked one up in front of me and devoured it – with the juice all over …

Contributor blog post by Ashley Tinker: Ashley of Curious Provence writes about her favourite market stand, and a trip to a huge pottery market that is held every August in Aubagne. Yesterday, I went to one of the five largest pottery markets in Europe. For the past weekend, the bi-annual …

Contributor blog post by Ashley Tinker: Winter leeks have a blue tinge to their leaves. These are being sold right now at Vaison la Romaine market on Tuesday mornings. For those of you who aren’t kicking yourselves for enthusiastically sowing hundreds of seeds when the first spring blossom appeared (the …

Contributor blog post by Ashley Tinker: Prices for bidon containers. A robinet is to facilitate pouring which can be quite the art from a 5 litre container into a glass…If you only have a tiny fridge the best is to transfer the wine into empty bottles. Buy the glass bottle …

Contributor blog post by Ashley Tinker: Last week I was welcomed into the atelier of ceramic artist Martine Guimet located in the beautiful hilltop village of St-Saturnin-les-Apt. I must say that I am quite in love with her work. Martine makes plaques, tabletops and sundials out of lava stone from …

The mornings are crisp all of a sudden. The days are still hot. The harvest, of just about everything, is in full swing. I went for a walk and followed the smell of a skip full to the brim of grape skins before I stepped into the leaking juice running …

Contributor blog post by Ashley Tinker: Here is a guide on how to take care of that irresistible little olive tree you bought to diversify your garden (if you weren’t travelling by plane that is). You may look at those little trees and think that ‘Oliviers’ won’t grow where you …

Contributor blog post by Ashley Tinker: The bull running, local village fêtes, pastis and rosé drinking aren’t slowing down just yet. Here is my selection of the many events going on this month primarily in the Bouches du Rhône region of Provence. As you can see, I’ve favoured village festivities …

Contributor blog post by Ashley Tinker: Now is the time to pick wild figs in Provence. White and violet figs alike are ripe on the wild ‘figuier’ trees that grow anywhere close to water sources here in Provence. I’m always amazed how these resistant (almost invasive) trees can root themselves …