yep… I should have written it silently… 
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But on the other hand, how are you going to know if the rear of the item is not rotten or damaged without touching it first? I have to say that I don’t rough hand items, gently pick them up and have a look and if OK, put in my plastic bag. My DIL puts all fresh produce in the garage for a few hours, then meticulously washes every item before putting it away (she suffers from fear of germs after having cancer treatment and the way her parents acted re infections etc, drives us all potty but she knows she can’t help it).
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If a stall holder sold me rotten fruit or veg on the stall I would go back and tell them so, and then move my custom elsewhere.
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I have a friend in Wales who has done that since the start of Covid. Absolutely everything that came through the door that may have been handled by another person stayed in an outbuilding for 24 hours and then he would clean it meticulously whilst wearing a mask. He’s only very recently started to relax his regime and went to the pub to see some mates for the first time in years a few weeks ago.
In which case its not covid they should worry about, its their susceptibility to media hype.
I’m grubby and rarely wash things like fruit seeing I either pick it and eat it or buy it and eat it out of the bag or punnet. I think it makes me better able to deal with germs which is borne out by never having gastro etc. I did the same all over the world and ate street food all the time and was never ill.
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That’s not what it is. Very intelligent person, not usually susceptible to idiots. He’s been going through a very tough time the last 5 years and I think that has combined with other things that has pushed him a bit over the edge. He’s lost a lot of friends because of his erratic behaviour, but those of us who care (I’ve known him nearly 45 years) have done our best to help him and he’s coming out the other side. Strangely (or maybe not), I think it was the rapid deterioration of his fathers health and then the death of his father that has brought him back as he had to cope mostly on his own to deal with his father and then the aftermath.
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so often there’s no simple reason to explain a person’s behaviour etc…
we all react to stress, sadness etc… in some way…
and it’s not always easy to know/understand what a person is going through or why they’re as they are … 
and often much easier simply to turn away. 
good on you for sticking by your friend… 
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Dealing with a friend in similar black cloud situation at the moment.
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Very sorry to read about the demise of your local market.
I posted months ago on this thread how we loved our local markets and, although one mid-week one has now wound down a bit due to la rentrée, it still has virtually all the fresh food we want. For me buying from the same producteurs, every week is a great pleasure. I will gently touch tomatoes and look at the underside of everything before it goes in the pannier.
We enjoy being recognised as regulars, whether it’s being given a bunch of parsley by the tomato lady or the chicken madam making a comment about the weather based on whether or not our caniche is wearing a manteau. The ham man knows we want his jambon de Paris sans nitrates, while the butcher pretends not to understand unless I use local pronunciation, whereas when the boulanger serves us, he wants to display his command of English to the whole queue. We buy all our duck products (canarderie, @vero ?) from next door’s cousin, and how could one forget the chorizo lady who always insists that I squeeze her sausages before choosing… (I’ll wait @Corona’s response).
Lastly, in addition to these social pleasures, after several years of having to buy most things from UK supermarkets we greatly appreciated returning to eating what is in season and largely very local .
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Exactly my position. Until this latest bout of cold, sore throat, cough and asthma (always there in the background anyway) I haven’t had so much as a cold in 10 years I reckon. The very rarity of the last few days proves the point I think.
Choosing fruit by close inspection is part of all that, I am not looking for perfect, just to be able to calculate how long I have got to eat the item concerned. Almost overripe pears are so juicy and delicious and bananas that are half brown and going to liquid inside equally so. I haven’t even mentioned the alcoholic joy of fast approaching decomposition. Almost as good as an apero sometimes. 
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Well it got to the stage that we had to shower on return from shopping straight away (I was staying with them at the time),put our clothes in the wash basket etc but I have to say none of us caught it, only a nastro gastro flu but negative for covid. At least she cares about her family.
Early on a Spanish University tried to figure out catching covid from the virus being on surfaces. They couldnt as the viral load was too small. Although technically it can live on some surfaces for a while, transferring enough to make someone ill they could do. Later an Israeli university tried the same thing and they couldnt transfer sufficient viral loading either.
At which point we stopped the germ fogging company spraying the offices and workplaces.
I stopped washing things from shops as well, never caught covid either.
Wondering if France will bring back mask wearing whilst I am there, may bring mine with me just in case but again the evidence is these do next to nothing and surgical masks are a complete waste of money and add to plastic waste.
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I wonder? I’m a great believer in the mind being the healer. If people believe that the mask gives them protection then I think they probably will be less likely to get Covid. Also, they may believe that they are doing something positive/constructive for themselves and others and that reduces the sense of powerlessness, which again, supports the immune system. We still understand so little about what enables one person to stay well while the person alongside them falls sick.
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I still haven’t had COVID, I’m not complaining 
I hope I don’t get it.
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I agree, its facinating but with so many variables its not going to be found amytime soon. Some do all they can to stay healthy but others seem to put themselves at risk. Then of course there are genetics which determine other factors like size which can bring a host of issues. Our 20 stone friend who is diabetic with really high blood pressure and poor dietry habits with a love of sugary coctail drinks, caught the 1st wave of covid and I did not expect the outcome to be a good one, sent home with paracetemol and recoved after 10 days, had covid 2 more times and still the same. His staff member is a gym bunny 3-4 times a week eats well and was hospitalised for 2.5 weeks.
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A: and non fresh food? Is the torréfacteur at figeac market any good or is the shop in town better?
B: as you will have realised by now I am a pedant. It’s un panier, not pannier.
But he was speaking English, not French, wasn’t he? 
Getting it right can be painier . . . . . . .
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I’ve used both on and off for many years, but think the former stocks too many varieties for them all to be freshly roasted. By contrast my wife still buys her coffee from Les cordeliers, where they have about eight varieties which areroasted at the front of the shop in a lovely mid-C20th coffee roaster. Unfortunately, neither shop nor stall have ever stocked my favourite beans, so buy those in Rodez (yirgacheffe in the unlikely possibility that anyone’s the slightest bit interested)
Thanks for correcting my spelling - after decades of correcting students’ errors I’m happy to have been able to stop, apart from pouncing on an error that offers the opportunity for a decent pun.
OTOH I might, as many people do, put vegetables in the pannier on my bike…
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