One of those things that I think Europe does best is the weekend street market. Rickety wooden stands with different colored awnings line the cobblestone streets selling mounds of loose spices, dried fruits, fresh vegetables, sausages on baguettes, cheap faux-linen clothing, an odd assortment of jewelry, antiques and glamorized garage sale-type items, olive oil, and homemade jams made from almost any fruit you could imagine. If you haven't tried fig jam, I would seriously recommend it!
I've been to the Saturday market in Morges a couple times before with my aunt and uncle, brother and mom, so when I was reading the events page on the myswitzerland.com website and saw that Morges was having a special Autumn market, I promised myself that between shifts I would take the 45 min train to check it out. It took an enormous amount of effort to peal myself from my bed after a long and busy breakfast/lunch shift, but I made the trip and was relieved to have the change of scenery. Morges itself is an adorable little lakeside village about 10 mins from Lausanne with tiny streets, boutique stores, and a friendly vibe that I haven't felt in many other places. Maybe I'm confusing friendliness with familiarity, as I recognized a cheese shop I've visited with Anne and a fountain Yann coundn't stop himself from splashing in, but walking the streets breathed some life back into me, something I was in desperate need of after a not-so-wonderful week of work. I walked and walked, passing by some of the vendors not two but three times (by the confused looks on some of their faces, they noticed my odd amount of enthusiasm for market browsing), took advantage of the free samples, and pulled my camera out every few minutes to snap photos and stand out as a tourist.
And while searching through piles of random used items, I found a funky, old metal coffee canister that was just what I needed. For the price of three Swiss francs, it quickly became my newest "this will be so cool in my future apartment" purchase. Maybe it wasn't the most useful thing to buy, but the shopping therapy did the trick and I trained back to Montreux with a lighter temperament and a fun new find. Oh, and a bag full of organic apples sold to me by a nearly toothless man that I just couldn't say no to.
Good old-fashioned, juggling street entertainers.
"This little piggie went to the market..."
See what I mean about the cute streets?!
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