The Provençal Christmas Market at Château de Berne

Greetings dear readers and friends. Well things have sure cooled down here… a lot. We’d been really lucky to have sunshine up until about last week and now the real fall / winter temperatures are setting in – as low as 40° F in the morning… and, as you can imagine, that’s pretty low for us.

But it does make for a pretty nice “holiday ambiance” as we decided to head out to Château de Berne last Sunday for their Provençal Christmas market. You may remember from the last post that they host three Christmas markets during three consecutive weekends in November. Well, we didn’t quite make it to the English market, but I‘m so happy we decided to make the trip (about 1 hour by car) to the Provençal market.

First, Sunday was freezing cold… but full of sunshine, a huge plus when touring a winery as nice as Château de Berne. This was our first visit (we’d passed by several times on the way to the Gorges du Verdon) and, wow, just wow… this place is so pretty!

I hope these photos do it justice, as it was hard to capture the size and scope of the vineyards. We were treated to a horse-drawn carriage ride around one end of the château (so fun!) and then we got down to Christmas-market business.

And what an elegant market it was… They had very chic Christmas decorations as well as jewelry, handcrafted purses, olive oil, olives, truffles, mustard, honey, escargots, cheese, sweets, and of course… loads of Château de Berne wine. My husband was the wine-taster as I was afraid I would have bought up the whole place after a few glasses.

Since it was the Provençal Christmas market, they had some handcrafted items and a nice display of the 13 desserts of Provence – a tradition found on Christmas Eve tables across the region. I loved the ladies dressed up in traditional clothing and it was a wonderful to see everyone in the holiday spirit.

Just outside the market, there were several food trucks – everything from crepes to sausages to wine, and my husband and I made a promise to each other. Somehow, some way, we have to spend a night at the Château’s hotel. Ok, it’s a 5-star… a bit out of our budget… but I’m sure Santa can spare a couple extra euros on us. Anyway, it’s a nice Christmas wish to have.

Wishing you a lovely weekend and a very Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans!