Today started with a food tour around Bastille. Bastille monument is the site of the bastille prison that was stormed during the French revolution in 1789, prisoners freed, and fought to over through the monarchy.

Of course we started with a croissant at one of the many boulangeries that dot Paris and learnt 2 interesting facts . Paris can never be with out bread to avoid any future revolutions. Everyone belongs to unions and allowed to strike except bakers and bakers must apply to the local government if they want to go on holiday as there must be at least one boulangerie open in every area so Parisans don't go with out le pain!

Also Croissants originated from Austria. In the 18 century the Ottomans were advancing towards western Europe and were digging tunnels under the city walls in Austria. The bakers who were up early saw what was happening and alerted the town guards who then thwarted the attack! As a reward the bakers were allowed to design a new pastry. The designed a crescent shaped pastry (like the crescent on a the turkish flag). Marie Antoinette was from Austria and bought the croissant with her from Austria to France.  

Next we walked to the market de Algrie and stopped at the Charcuterie with a huge array of terraines, meats, sausages - our selection to try there was fois gras duck terrain, like a potted ham, and saucisson (dried sausage from provence) . Cant say I've ever wanted to try fois gras and i don't condone foie gras production but I did try it - only Steve was keen on the meat products. Next stop was the cheese shop which is much more my enjoyable - a fantastic selection of goat, sheep and cow cheeses - some rubbed with walnut skins. The goat cheeses were our favourite - not the usual runny ones we eat - but firmer more mature/milder goat cheeses. Then a selection of delicious seasonal fruit and vegetables. Nectarine season now and they just melt in your mouth and the tomatoes are sensational. Plenty of organic produce. Our tour finished at a local family run wine shop. The coffee in paris is good and there is a cafe at every corner. After buying fresh bread, tomatoes, saucisson, cheese and fruit for our journey we took the train to provence (Avignon). 

Unfortunately they wouldn't let Steve hire a car with out his full licence so it was another small train and then taxi to Cucuron. It didn't matter as Cucuron is an amazing small medieval town that dates back to the 12 century with most of the houses in the centre over 500 years old. It is stunning - the town has 2 towers from the old town wall and the town over looks vineyards, olive groves, and almond trees. Our villa is off a little town square. We have blue shutters to close when it is hot in the afternoon. The inside is cool. Cucuron is everyones dream provence village