French villages and markets

Trying to live as the French live

We are in the village of Montmaur, as shown by the green marker. It is southeast of Toulouse. The villages of  Villefranche-de-Lauragais (where our closest big supermarket is) and Revel (where the best local markets are) can both be seen on this map. 

Village of St Felix de Lauragais - about 10 mins away.

Part of the appeal of being in one place for a longer period was to get to know the area and to see how locals spend their time. Our nearest village, Montmaur, is tiny yet has a growing population. One of the markers for “village status” seems to be the presence of a boulangerie … a bakery. There isn’t one in Montmaur, yet 18 new apartments have just sold off the plan in this tiny place! Map-france.com tells me the population was 153 people in 2007! 

There appears to be great appeal to living in a small village, full of old buildings. In the case of Montmaur, the new apartments are actually in a 13th century castle! Montmaur claims to be 45 mins from Toulouse, but we suspect that its only 45 mins if you drive there at 3am in the morning, at breakneck speed! 55-60 minutes is much more realistic!

So many of the villages still maintain the old buildings. Its hard to estimate how old they are, but certainly as far back as the 16the century and earlier. The houses are just a metre or so from the road - no footpaths, yet many still squeeze pot plants and flowers into their tiny gaps. Most have shutters, as well as small windows. Colours are very much the different hues of orange - from quite pale to rich, strong terracotta colours. 

I love the pot plants squeezed onto the tiny footpath. This
is the main road through Montmaur.

Each village has a sign announcing the name of the village as you approach; then as you leave, it has another sign with a line through it to inform you that the village is finished! Most villages have a square of some sort. In Revel, it is a large square and that is where the markets are held each week. Montmaur didn't quite have a square, but it did have a "rectangle" near the centre of town.  A couple of times, we saw groups of older men playing the French game of boules there, often late in the afternoon. Made us chuckle!

Most houses still have small windows,
complete with shutters.

Moving on from Montmaur, there are several other villages that are a little bigger than Montmaour, as they have a loulangerie!  The biggest centre in the region is Revel. Revel has several boulangeries, as well as a large supermarket - a population of about 9 000.Revel is most well known for its weekly markets. The markets, held each Saturday, rate as one of the best regional food markets in france. We were lucky enough to go twice, so we stocked up on fresh food 

and french specialities - cheese, pâtes, baguettes, Toulouse sausage and plenty of seasonal fruit and vegetables. Mushroom linguine for dinner was the result of our market trip this morning!

Snails! They were very popular!

There were several food varieties available at the markets - the most distinctive being the snails! The waft of garlic hit you before you saw the snails, but they truly were snails bubbling away in this massive pot. It was a very popular stall and though we were offered a taste, we all declined ... much to the amusement of the locals!

Some of the other foods available ....

We love all the images associated with the markets as they seem to epitomise all that we’ve read about markets. Plenty of fresh food, direct from the seller; sellers who are passionate about their food and how to cook it; great instructions on how to cook it (despite me saying I don’t speak French) and the locals sitting around the edge of the square, drinking their coffees … and beer, and wine …. no need to wait until wine o'clock here... wine is drunk at any hour!

One of our highlights has been attending some local trash and treasure markets on Sunday. Known in French as 'vide grenier', which literally means emptying the attic, these were amazing. In the village of Saint-Julia, which according to map-France.com only has 117 people, this village came alive with hundreds of people coming to the stalls. You could buy everything from old typewriters, clothes (a Yves St Laurent skirt and jacket - although it was 150 euro, so a little more expensive than most other options), kitchen bits and pieces, antiques, old farm equipment plus anything else you haven't thought about in months! 

We had a very enjoyable morning wandering around this quaint village, chuckling at the variety of things available. Icecream at the end was great too!