Antiques & Finds

This is not an antiques market for idle nostalgia. The dealers are seasoned professionals, often with half a century of charming mischief behind them. They know exactly what an object is worth, and they read your enthusiasm just as accurately. Bargaining is not simply about paying less. It is part of the ritual, and often half the pleasure of the purchase.

Natacha leads you through the maze and helps you recognise the one piece worth noticing among thousands, whether it is an antique weapon, a painting, crystal or silver. If you fall for something too large for a suitcase, it can be sent home without turning customs into the final challenge of the day.

Around midday the stalls begin to close. We make our way towards the main square, never quite in a straight line, tasting whatever proves impossible to pass. Paella, gardiane de taureau and other treasures of Occitan cooking wait for us there.

Nearby is another kind of market: produce without pretension. The farmer who grew what we are holding may have no idea that it would be at home on the finest tables in Paris. We leave with more than ingredients; we leave carrying the evening's dinner.

In 1768, the Viceroy of India came here to recover his health, bringing his own cook and an unfamiliar recipe: a small pastry shaped like a cotton reel, crisp outside and filled with sweet-and-savoury lamb, lemon zest and sugar. The recipe never left. Today, the town bakes around 250,000 of them each year.

Pézenas feels like the stage set for its own history, with grand merchants' houses and antiques shops around every corner.