"A detailed, rigorous, and vivid ethnographical description of exchange in the marketplace.”

Pierre Bourdieu | Liber

"Michèle de La Pradelle paints an extraordinary tableau of Comtadine life with a sense of all its particularities, making her book a fascinating read for those curious about southern regionalism. The book is written with the true literary qualities of color and precision."

Pierre Vallin | Etude

"A brilliant analysis.”

Andre Burguire | Le Nouvel Observateur

"In Market Day in Provence, the essence of the market-day experience is a jovial back-and-forth between buyer and seller in which class boundaries are suspended and the normal rules of etiquette do not apply. The man offering his farmhouse cheeses is entitled to chaff and tease. The customer is free to poke and squeeze and fondle the merchandise, unthinkable behavior in a shop. It's all deliciously rural and traditional, and, Ms. de La Pradelle takes great pains to demonstrate, as phony as it can possibly be. . . . She goes about her demolition work, with great good humor.”

 

William Grimes | New York Times

“In this vivid and highly perceptive ethnographical study, which was first published in French as Les Vendredis de Carpentras in 1996, the late Michèle de La Pradelle analyses the traditional marché forain, a traveling stallholder market, using Carpentras, one of France’s oldest and most celebrated markets, as a model. . . . While de la Pradelle’s observations uncover illusions of the street market, one suspects that she too has fallen under its spell. In her Carpentras, the sun always shines, the locals are unremittingly friendly, and the latent religious and racial tensions that have characterized this city in recent years are only hinted at. Yet the brilliance of Market Day in Provence lies precisely in the fact that, however much Michèle de La Pradelle demystifies the object of her study, she remains loyal to its magic. Her evocative descriptions of this colourful theatre of fantasy will delight anyone who has ever wondered why the lettuces look crispier, the tomatoes redder and the oranges more juicy at the market.”

Sarah Howard | Times Literary Supplement

"Provocative, insightful, and well-researched. . . . Aside from gaining a thorough knowledge of what makes street markets work in an economy that does not need them, readers can almost feel as though they have been in to the Carpentras market and chatted with some of its most representative characters."

Zilkia Janer | Gastronomica

"Exemplary ethnography, and de La Pradelle is prescient in emphasizing that meaning is place based, firmly linked to locality and microcultures."

Gary Alan Fine | American Journal of Sociology

"A magisterial study into the complexity of the commonplace. . . . [The] text is exemplary, written in a scholarly but delightful style which refuses to take Anthrospeak seriously."

Jeremy MacClancey | Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute