Market Day in Bourdeaux

Thursday mornings are market days in Bourdeaux and the main street crossing the bridge is closed to car traffic and covered with stands selling various produce that spill into a small square beside the bridge.

  Fruits, vegetables, saucissons (salami type sausages made of pork, wild boar or bull meat and are flavoured with cepe mushrooms, lavender, provençal herbs among other seasonings), whole freshly caught trout and other fish, olives, breads, cheeses and spices are some of the comestibles.  Chickens roast on a rotisserie and are served with roast potatoes.  There are pieces to sample of Caillette, a local delicacy that is a roasted ground pork ball the size of a grapefruit mixed with vegetables (like spinach and onions) that can be served cold or hot.  But today the highlight was the local goats milk cheese, the Picodon. 

The Picodon is a round flat cheese about 3 inches in diameter.  It is sold fresh (made within 48 hours) or aged 4 days, 12 days, 20 days or more.  The 4 day is fresh, but already flavourful and smooth.  The 12 day becomes creamy and runny and is wonderful too.  By 20 days aging the cheeses become more dry and crumbly and sharper tasting, but are great in salads, crumbled over green leaves.  Older than that is an acquired taste for most people and not easy to love at first blush.

A thick slice of Pain de Campagne (Country style bread) with a centimetre of 4 day old Picodon and a centimetre slice of the magnificent tomatoes sold in the area is a WOW lunch experience.