Nyons in Drôme Provençal is one of the cities that we (especially my husband) have always wanted to visit. To taste their local olive produce. Now that we are in the region, we will of course not miss out Nyon’s weekly market which will definitely have a wide range of olive products.
Market Day in Nyons
We had already visited two open air markets: one in Valaurie and one in Grignan. Having experienced the very limited selection in the former and an average-sized one in the latter, we were amazed by the size of the Nyons market. Stalls, both food and non-food, are spread out over 4 or five squares. As we drove towards the village at around 9am, about 200m before entering the village, we saw cars parked on both sides of the main road into Nyons. We weren’t the only ones taking advantage of the Thursday market shopping day.
Olives of Nyons in Drôme Provençal
After grabbing a quick breakfast at a boulangerie, we started wandering through the market. There was a multitude of stalls but we realised soon after most of them displayed the same wares. With olives being our priority, we stopped at a bio-olive stall where the owner was slowly scooping, spoonful by spoonful, thick black olive paste into a customer’s rectangular kitchen glass tray (about 20xm x 20cm). I was thinking that the customer had to be either an olive addict or had a big family.
I like olive oil and I eat marinated olives occasionally and have tried olive tapenade (a spread of usually olive, capers and anchovies). However, I don’t usually eat a lot at one time (three or four) as they are either too salty sometimes or a tad sour for me. My husband, on the other hand, loves olives and eat them almost every other day. This trip to Nyons was mainly to satisfy his craving.
Black olives, affinade and tapenade
Nyons is famous for its black olives (olives noires). The lady owner of the bio-stall informed us that the black olive paste we saw was actually affinade: pure olive paste. Unlike the common tapenade, affinade is made of black olives and black olive oil. I was surprise that I actually like this pure version of olive paste. It had this umami taste that worked well on good artisan bread (not the industrialised ones). The taste reminded me of the British household Marmite which I ate when I was a kid. Unfortunately as the affinade was recommended to be eaten fresh, we only bought enough for the last two meals in Drôme Provençal. We did indeed finish the affinade in two meals and could eat even more if we had more! Other than the affinade, we also bought a small jar of tapenade (olives and figs) and a bag of black olives from the same stall. In retrospect, we should also have bought more of the tapenade. Instead of the umami taste of affinade, the tapenade tastes sweet which was also to my taste.
Fruit shopping
After the olive shopping, we searched for figs. The fig harvest season is generally from July to October. I love fresh figs and was hoping to have a fig feast. Yet, we only found a couple of stalls carrying this small fleshy fruit. The fruit stall that carried figs didn’t have that many left and they were very ripe. From the same stall, we also bought a bunch of muscat grapes (hoping that it would be as sweet as the one from our gîte) and some prunes.
Exploring Nyons
By the time we finished shopping, it was after 10. The sun had started to bare its fangs! We wanted to do a bit of sightseeing before the heat got too unbearable. The two landmarks that we had in mind were: Randonne Tower and the Roman Pont. By this time, the number of shoppers seemed to have doubled, or even tripled. We could hardly move as we walked through the throngs of people. It took us a bit of time before we got out of the market.
Restaurants around
We were thinking of having a cold drink in Nyons after the quick tour. However, the hordes of visitors put us off the idea. Instead, we decided to drive to Grignan to have a quiet lunch. Besides, we wanted to try out restaurant L’Eau à la Bouche, a place recommended by the gîte owner. Three hours under the sun was a tad much for us and it seemed to have affected our appetite. Instead of a 2-dish course that we usually choose in restaurants, we ordered only the main dish. I ordered the a veal stew (veau à la provençale) which I found very savoury.
Other than this restaurant, we tried two other restaurants (La table du Moulin) and (La Maison Roucas) during our week stay in Drôme Provencal. For both restaurants, my husband and I had ordered the three-course dinner. Both of us loved the food (decoration and taste) and they were relatively inexpensive (compared to Paris or even Grenoble), about €50 per person including a glass of wine. In terms of ambience, we both agree that La Maison Roucas is better because of its rustic setting in an inner court yard enclosed by a former stone farmhouse.
It was a restful one week stay in Drôme Provençal. Away from the noisy hectic city life and surrounded by fresh, healthy local produce. It’s regrettable that we were cooped indoor for the majority part of the day due to the heatwave. We would definitely consider returning to this part of the country, albeit during a cooler period. Since Drôme Provençal is only a two-hour drive from Grenoble, we could even spend a long weekend after we return to work.