Amazing how good ingredients can elevate your cooking skills, isn’t it? Grab some truffle oil, prosciutto and fresh mozzarella, and it’s move over, Carluccio. A basket full of garlic, olive oil and tomatoes, maybe a bottle or two of vin rouge, and it’s back off, Floyd, I’m the daddy chef.

So, when you’re not sampling the local restaurants, make sure you sample the local markets. If you have your own villa, parfait: take the car, panic-buy and retreat back to that gorgeous terrace to do your best Jamie Oliver impression. Even if you don’t, the markets are still the perfect hunting ground for picnic ingredients — and treats for going-home time.

Here, to get you started on your search, are six markets to make your mouth water ...

MIRANDE, Gascony

For the full effect, start with a glass of pastis at one of the cafes on Place d’Astarac. Yes, it’s only 9am, and yes, it’s Monday morning, but for three hours you’re going to play at being a local, and that includes the traditional market-day toast. The farmers gathered around you will be gobsmacked.

Then it’s time to go shopping. Mirande is tiny, a bastide town founded in the 13th century to repopulate a countryside ravaged by war. But for real proof of the strength of the Gascon market scene, this is where to come. Its 19th-century covered market has recently been restored, and on Monday mornings, it hums.

Look out for: foie gras, of course, and any kind of free-range fowl. Also brebis (cheese made from the milk of Pyrenean sheep), prunes from Agen, red Madiran and white Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh wines, and all kinds of charcuterie — you might even find some wild-boar salami. Finally, you shouldn’t leave without a bottle or two of armagnac. The best of it comes from the reddish, iron-rich soils of the Bas-Armagnac, around Eauze.

Further information: www.ot-mirande.com.

VAISON-LA-ROMAINE, Provence

Many of the medium-sized towns in northern Provence have exceptional weekly gatherings — Valréas (Wednesday), Nyons (Thursday) and especially Carpentras (Friday) — which effectively shut the place down for a morning. Quite a few of the traders work the entire area, so it doesn’t matter which you go for; but, on balance, Vaison-la-Romaine, on a Tuesday, is best — you will have had time to settle in, but you’ll still have enough days to eat what you buy. The extensive Roman remains and tight medieval streets of the Haute Ville make for great sightseeing when you’re done.

Look out for: olive oil from nearby Nyons and garlic from the flat lands of the Vaucluse. Ground up and blended with eggs and lemon juice, they make aïoli, the piquant Provençal mayonnaise that is served as a dip with crisp, parboiled fennel, courgettes, carrots and artichokes — in fact, almost any kind of vegetable. (Provence is famous for its veg.) In addition, keep your eyes peeled for Banon (an appellation contrôlée goat’s cheese), local honey and whatever is the latest seasonal fruit. The nectarines here are superb.

Further information: www.vaison-la-romaine.com.

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