Melons worth celebrating

Last week we attended the Melon en Fête in Cavaillon, THE melon capital of Provence. A weekend of activities and festivities celebrating all things melon. From tastings to artworks to traditional costumes and bands, and even the running of the Carmague horses and bulls through the streets!

Until you have eaten a melon from Cavaillon you have not tasted melon. I read somewhere that if sunshine had a flavour, this would be it! I know rockmelon at home will never live up to this, we have been spoiled. Ok, I'm sounding a little too food-enthusiastic now, am I turning French?!

Food is so obviously an obsession in France. Unlike in Australia, where we shop in supermarkets and we can get almost any produce at any time of the year (granted, most will have zero flavour), the French will go without all year and when a particular food comes into season it's worth celebrating. They (and us) will stuff themselves silly with berries and melons and figs in the summer, or asparagus in the spring. Autumn will bring mushrooms and the revered truffles! 

In the summer it has been cherries, melons, strawberries and stone fruits. The cherries were on the trees one day, gone the next, and for two short weeks we ate the most glorious tasting cherries every day. And then one day they were gone. My cherry man told me the season was over and he was now selling his apricots ... they too, would be finished in the next couple of weeks, so eat as many as you can .... until next year!

A xx