Provençal food, and where to shop in Sainte-Maxime

On Monday, the Patio Fleuri market sets up on avenue Georges-Pompidou. It mixes food with manufactured goods, and it comes back on Friday from 1 April to 30 September. On Thursday it is the turn of the town centre market, which runs from place du Marché to place Colbert and the neighbouring streets.

On Friday, the Mermoz market fills place Jean-Mermoz and its car park.

This is the one for regional artisan specialities and short supply chains, so it is the best for discovering the area's producers. Finally, from mid-June to mid-September, a market of craftspeople and painters brings the pedestrian streets of the old centre to life from 4pm to 11pm.

The opening times change twice a year, at the switch to high season and to low season. Those given here were checked in September 2026 with the town council and the tourist office. Check them on sainte-maxime.fr before travelling on a public holiday.

The Friday market on place Jean-Mermoz is the short supply chain one: this is where you meet the area's producers.

The tarte tropézienne, born on the other side of the gulf

The best-known speciality of the gulf is a brioche filled with cream. Alexandre Micka, a pastry chef of Polish origin, created it in Saint-Tropez in 1955, from his grandmother's recipe. He wrote it down in 1970 and registered it in 1972.

According to the company's official history, Brigitte Bardot discovered the cake during the filming of Et Dieu créa la femme and decided to name it La Tarte Tropézienne. She introduced it to the whole film crew. Albert Dufrêne took over the business in July 1985, and his son Sacha runs it today.

The recipe remains a house secret, known to three people only. The name itself is a registered trademark: the tarte tropézienne in the strict sense comes from its creator, and similar brioches sold elsewhere go by other names.

Bouillabaisse (the Provençal fish stew), and what sets it apart from fish soup

Bouillabaisse began as a fishermen's dish. While sorting the fish meant for sale, they set a few pieces aside for themselves. The name comes from Provençal, and it describes the gesture: when it boils, you lower the heat.

In 1980, seventeen Marseille restaurateurs signed the bouillabaisse charter. The reason is simple: some establishments were selling any fish soup under that name.

So the charter sets rules for serving it. The broth and the fish arrive in two separate dishes. The fish is carved in front of the diner. Rouille (the garlic and chilli sauce), aïoli (garlic mayonnaise) and garlic-rubbed croutons must come with the dish.

On the fish itself, the accepted rule is a minimum of four Mediterranean rock species of the utmost freshness, with scorpion fish named by every source. The detailed lists vary from one text to another, so we do not repeat them here. Remember the principle instead: two servings, four species, and fish of the day.

The rest of the Provençal table

Tapenade (the olive and caper paste) carries a misleading name. It comes from the Provençal tapeno, which means the caper, not the olive.

The chef of the restaurant La Maison Dorée, in Marseille, gave it that name in 1880 to fill stuffed eggs. The original recipe combines capers and black olives in equal quantities, with tuna, anchovies, olive oil and mustard. The olive then took over, because it costs less than the caper.

Panisses are made with chickpea flour, water, salt and pepper, then fried in a pan. Aïoli brings together garlic and olive oil, and goes with fish, snails and vegetables. Pissaladière, a Nice speciality, spreads slowly softened onions, anchovy fillets and black olives over bread dough.

Navettes, finally, are dry orange-blossom biscuits shaped like a small boat. The Four des Navettes in Marseille has been making them since 1781, on rue Sainte, on the way to the abbaye Saint-Victor. Every 2 February, at Candlemas, the archbishop blesses the ovens and the navettes at eight in the morning.

The appellations of the Var

The Var produces three main wine appellations, and Sainte-Maxime sits at the heart of the largest. The AOC Côtes de Provence, recognised by decree on 24 October 1977, covers 84 towns across three departments, 68 of them in the Var. Five additional geographical names go with it: Sainte-Victoire, Fréjus, La Londe, Pierrefeu and Notre-Dame des Anges.

The AOC Bandol, recognised as early as 11 November 1941, covers only eight Var towns around the bay of Bandol. The AOC Coteaux varois, created on 26 March 1993, became Coteaux varois en Provence on 2 August 2005, across 28 towns in the centre of the department.

The department also has food appellations. The figue de Solliès, a black bourjassotte variety, gained AOC status in 2010 and then AOP status on 19 December 2011, across fifteen towns.

Provence olive oil gained AOP status on 21 February 2020: 464 towns, 59 approved mills and around 250,000 litres a year, produced by mechanical means alone. Provence honey, finally, has held IGP status since 15 November 2005.

And in the gulf, around us

The gulf tourist office highlights a handful of local products: honey, goat's cheese, saffron, jams, and chestnuts as a liqueur or candied. The last of these points to the massif des Maures, which begins just behind Sainte-Maxime.

On the wine side, the destination lists 69 wine tourism offers, including 32 estates carrying the Vignobles et Découvertes label. Gassin and Ramatuelle hold half of them, with seventeen each. Château de Chausse and Domaine des Tournels, which overlooks the bay of Pampelonne, are among the estates the office names.

For a year-round tenant, this map has a practical merit. It offers weekend outings twenty minutes from home, out of season, when the estates welcome visitors without the crowds.

So you discover your department instead of driving through it.

We keep no directory of producers, and we recommend no commercial address. For an up-to-date list, the Sainte-Maxime tourist office, place Louis Blanc, remains the right door to knock on.

Shopping here without breaking the bank

A tourist market and a residents' market are not shopped the same way. The first rule comes down to one word: timing. Producers rarely cut their prices, but the stalls empty, and the best produce goes in the first hour. In winter, that means half past eight.

The second rule concerns which market to choose. The covered market serves daily life, six days a week. The Friday Mermoz market serves discovery, with its short supply chains. The Monday and Thursday markets mix food with the rest, and suit a stroll.

The third rule is seasonal. Figs arrive at the end of summer, chestnuts in October, new oil at the end of the year, after the olive harvest.

Buying when the produce leaves the orchard costs less and tastes better.

The produce calendar, month by month

Autumn opens the chestnut season in the massif des Maures, just behind the town. The gulf tourist office names chestnut liqueur and candied chestnuts among the area's products: these are late-season preparations.

Winter is the time for olive oil. The AOP Huile d'olive de Provence rests on mechanical processes alone and on fifty-nine approved mills, for around two hundred and fifty thousand litres a year. The main varieties are aglandau, bouteillan and salonenque.

Summer belongs to the fig. The figue de Solliès, the only fruit AOP in the Var, is a black bourjassotte with dense, firm flesh the colour of strawberry jam, grown across fifteen towns. It appears on the department's markets from the end of August.

Honey, finally, sells all year round. The IGP Miel de Provence covers the region's six departments, plus the Drôme provençale and the east of the Gard. It can be single-flower, from rosemary, thyme or lavender, or multi-flower.

A cuisine made for the season

Provençal cooking grew out of what the climate gives, and you see it in the make-up of the dishes. Olive oil replaces butter, garlic serves as the base seasoning, and summer vegetables rule the warm months. It is a cuisine of local resources before it is a cuisine of recipes.

In winter, the table changes. Slow-cooked dishes take over, such as pieds et paquets, made from lamb or mutton offal simmered in white wine and tomato, born in Marseille in the nineteenth century. Daube and keeping vegetables follow the same movement.

For a tenant from elsewhere, this is one of the quickest pleasures of settling in. All it takes is a market, a bottle of oil from the department and a question put to the producer to step into the local kitchen.

So you make a home here rather than simply lodge here.

Cooking in our homes

All our kitchens are fitted. The oven, the fridge, the washing machine and the dishwasher stay in place when you arrive, including in the homes let unfurnished. We always make this point, because kitchen equipment weighs heavily on a moving-in budget.

Several of our flats also have a terrace, of twelve to sixteen square metres depending on the property, and one of the mazets opens onto a private garden. On this coast the summer table is laid outdoors from April to October, and that changes how you live in a compact home.

As for the cellar, present in several of our properties, it earns its keep more often than you would think. Bottles from the department keep better there than in a kitchen cupboard, and almost every flat of this size lacks the space.

Where to find what, around the town

The nearest vineyards belong to the AOC Côtes de Provence, which covers sixty-eight Var towns. The gulf destination lists sixty-nine wine tourism offers, including thirty-two estates with the Vignobles et Découvertes label, concentrated above all in Gassin and Ramatuelle.

For produce from the land, the Friday Mermoz market remains the starting point. For fish, the covered market, Tuesday to Sunday. For oil, the approved AOP mills, spread across the region. And for an up-to-date address book, the tourist office on place Louis Blanc.

We recommend no shop in particular, and this is not excessive caution. A landlord who promotes addresses is in the wrong job, and lists of that kind age badly.

Tourist offices keep these directories, and they keep them up to date.