Another (rainy) day another brocante…

This week, friends arrive with the rain, we discover hidden powers of negotiation, and I share a crowd-pleasing recipe for chicken with mushrooms and spinach.

Brocante bound, in our mini bus hired from the supermarket.

I often call my women friends my raft, the people who keep me afloat in those moments when it all feels too much. I didn’t expect them to ever to have to fashion me an actual raft.

On Friday, four of my best belovèd women friends arrived from London for the weekend and almost from the moment they landed, it began to rain. And it kept raining. All weekend. We checked every weather app, each one more grim than the last.

On Saturday morning, in a demonstration of relentless optimism, we went to Pézenas market. We sat on the terrace of the Café des Arts over several rounds of café crème as rain poured down on the canopy and that was quite enough of that, thank you very much. We went home to a dining room picnic of cheese, ham, tielles sétoises, salad. Halfway through lunch, Emma and Adonis from our new favourite restaurant in the village, Oizillon (Oisillon means “little bird”) , rang on the bell. The table we’d reserved for the evening – on the tiny terrace, covered only by a parasol – was going to be very damp and the few seats inside were booked. Would we like them to deliver our dinner? They don’t make deliveries. Their food is delicate and complex and it doesn’t really lend itself to being piled into boxes, so I was very touched by the offer. We declined, but they stayed for a glass of wine, a bite of cheese, a chat, long enough for Adonis and I to realise we share a birthday (albeit a few decades apart).

That afternoon, we sat on sofas, drank tea, napped, read, and talked over the top of movies and over the top of each other in the way old friends do. I replotted our Sunday plans as I’d thought about taking everybody to the Parc Peyrou in Montpellier for a little light brocanting – for whenever five middle aged women are gathered together, the allure of a slightly imperfect linen tablecloth is not to be underestimated. But this is only fun under the bright blue Mediterranean sky, not when running for shelter beneath the dripping plane trees. Instead, I decided on the Village Du Brocanteur, about an hour away in the Camargue. (I’ve written about it before, here.) The ‘village’ of stalls is housed in a huge hangar, so it’s perfect for a rainy day outing. There’s a friendly bar and restaurant inside the hangar, so you don’t even need to hunt down a café for lunch.

You think you know a person and then you see them negotiating over an oyster plate. It turns out, my dearest friend in the world – kind, thoughtful, loyal, funny - is a terrifying, take-no-prisoners brocanter. At one point, I almost ended up with a large, 1960s garden bench I didn’t want because she negotiated such a great price on it for what? Sport, I guess, because there was no way they were getting that thing into RyanAir carry on.

I didn’t intend to buy anything, rather seeing my role as ushering my friends through shopping and lunch – it was remarkable how much more swiftly the purchasing went after the red wine with our steak frites – but, joy, while I left them negotiating over yet another plate, I spotted a long, narrow table tucked away in one of the booths. I’ve been looking for a long, narrow table for our hallway since we moved here and there it was. Séan and I had to go back on Wednesday to collect it as there was no room for it in the car on Sunday, with the six of us and a dog. On the trip to collect the table, I also found a footstool for my needlework chair in the sitting room and six metal chairs for the garden. At the bar, the waitress greeted Séan by name. I guess we’re regulars now.

The table I bought. Not quite properly dressed yet, but you get the idea. I think it looks quite at home already.

The six garden chairs I didn’t know I needed, until I did.

Some useful addresses, for rainy days and other days

Café des Arts

A Saturday morning institution – great for coffee and people watching on market day. Buy croissants in the bakery next door to enjoy with your drinks.

8 cours Jean Jaurès
34120 Pézenas
Instagram @cafedesartspezenas

Oizillon

Delightful new restaurant in Marseillan.

8 boulevard Lamartine
34340 Marseillan
06 95 65 61 68

Instagram @oizillon_
Facebook: Oizillon-61553546447015

Les Dimanches du Peyrou

Lively Sunday brocante in the Parc Peyrou, Montpellier. Around 70 sellers, stalls selling drinks and food, music, from around 8am until around 3pm. Until January 15 2025, it has temporarily relocated to the promenade des Arceaux.

Brocante Website

Village du Brocanteur

154 avenue Ampère
30600, Vauvert

levillagedubrocanteur.com

Poulet aux champignons et épinards

Chicken with mushrooms and spinach

Let’s talk about it. Chicken in some sort of sauce is without question one of the simplest things to feed a crowd which guarantees happiness to the greatest number. When my friends were arriving from London on Friday night, I knew what to do. This recipe with mushrooms and spinach is easy and forgiving. It didn’t matter that their flight was late, and that we all wanted a walk and a drink and a lot of TALKING before dinner, because it’s very forgiving. It’s ready when you are.

I served it with some rice and the easy potimarron gratin from the other day, but you can just serve it with wedges of pumpkin or squash slicked with a little olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and roasted, or of course any other vegetables you like.

Serves 6