08/05/2025
Day 9: Ginormous Market Day! The Saturday market in Uzès is truly giant, with 200 vendors filling the Place aux Herbes and spilling out onto the side streets, the Boulevard Gambetta, and the nearby alleys. Vendors sell fruits, veggies, meat, cheese, seafood, bread, honey, nougat (a local delicacy), spices, flowers, olives, handmade jewelry, one of a kind art and crafts, woven handbags and colorful ceramics, as well as children’s toys, steak knives, rugs, underpants, scarves, hats, shoes and all manner of kickbacks you can imagine!
Our guests arrived early at 8am, the official start of the market hours, to both snag the best items, but also to avoid the thick crowds which appear around 10am. Personally, I had walked the market at 7am, swooped in at 8 to start my shopping, and soon after, enjoyed a café Creme with a piece of sweet fougasse, a local sweet pastry, as I watched the crowd descend upon the main drag. I had secured a couple of new scarves, two tablecloths, some pastries, and a handmade necklace during my market hunt. The ladies on our tour made out equally well, and found themselves with time to relax by the pool by lunchtime. A few even snuck in ice cream lunch and a pre dinner apero on the hotel rooftop at our wonderful
That evening, we joined together for our final celebration dinner at the fabulous restaurant. Each woman offered her thoughts about the trip, and much laughter bounced off the Roman arches of the terrace as we clinked glasses to toast our adventures, new friends and good fortune. As we walked back to our hotel past the Château of the Duché d’Uzès, we were carried by our giggly enthusiasm, oblivious to the bulging suitcases laying open in our hotel rooms waiting to be sat on and squashed closed with the treasures of our trip. Sweet dreams were had by all on our last night together in France.
