Many moules

This is the always smiling man who sells mussels at markets, also oysters, and occasionally tellines and clams. Mondays, he's at Mirepoix, Fridays at Lavelanet. Today we bought four "bons" kilos from him, "bons" meaning he weighs out far more that. The result was one very heavy plastic bag so we left it with him as we often do while we did the rest of our shopping. And, as he often does, he pretended we hadn't paid when we went back to collect it. 

  These aren't well-mannered cultivated mussels but wild ones, clumped together and covered with seaweed and barnacles. 

  Six of us for supper tonight and warm enough to eat outside. An easy dinner. Pâte, cornichons and a salad of roquette and shallots to start. Then the moules, steamed with onions, with a bowl of the tiniest imaginable new potatoes to mash with the back of your fork to soak up the moules juice. Cheeses with walnut bread (also from Lavelanet market) and fig jam. Fruit salad and cream to finish.