A couple of months ago I was getting a tyre changed in the garage near the Super U supermarket and as I left the car in I asked would they be long as I could go to the supermarket if they were going to be.
Madame indicated that it would be better if I went to “faire les courses ” a totally new expression to me but which I guessed correctly meant to do the shopping- it is thus that one learns a new language , often it is the most unlikely translations which tickle the imagination and stick.
This morning, Monday , with a French couple departing and an Irish family moving in tonight , I headed off to do mes courses.

My first shop is a new (about one year old) permanent farmers market called La Ferme Biterroise which is just a few kilometres down the road.
I had still not decided all of tonights menu and was searching for ideas.
I was in luck, the duck legs were on special offer , these are excellent free range local ducks which today cost me €7.50 for 12 legs , I also bought three of their excellent Magrets (Breasts) which are here much bigger than Irish Duck Breasts – this is not I hasten to add because of French Ducks being sexier, it is that the breasts are, to an extent , a by product of the fattening up of the ducks for the Foie Gras industry .
As I was there I stocked up on some new potatoes , the best I have found in the area , some very local tomatoes and then a farmer came in with a box of Violettes- bright purple potatoes. I asked him about them and he told me it was his first time growing them but he had tasted some and they had a delicious flavour of Hazelnuts- I bought a kilo to try.
I also bought a couple of kilo of local tomatoes – which turned out to be a bit under-ripe but still had more flavour than some bright red Belgian “Vine” tomatoes which I bought in Pezanas market last week.
Then to the Super U in Thezan to do the rest of the shopping,the washing powder , milk etc.
There I was also tempted by some little discs of goats cheeses from Rocamador up the road in the Lot and some St. Agur, a cow’s milk blue from the Auvergne- again not too far away. (There is actually very little cheese made in the Herault, the solo crop is the grape.)

As I left the Supermarket I spotted that a local woman was again selling her husbands vegetables from her garage, from her I got some very thin (but quite expensive- at €6 the kilo) Haricots verts and some wonderful and I know very sweet baby Aubergines whic are certainly very cheap at €1.50 a kilo.

And so I had my meal ready for tonight , a tomato tart (these tomatoes need cooking) made with goats cheese and basil to start with , A confit of duck thighs with some roast baby aubergine and purple potatoes for a main course and I had already made on Saturday and stored a Ginger Icecream which I will serve with a Walnut sauce and some almond biscuits which I will put together this afternoon.
In France getting meals together is much more about shopping than cooking.