The market sets up early, and when you venture outside after breakfast you’ll see why they have to: every street in Castillon-la-Bataille is filled with colourful stalls. There are stall holders calling to each other, locals filling their baskets with fresh fruit and veg, and canny shoppers haggling over the price of trinkets.

When we have a course running at Chez Castillon the tutors often use the market as a creative writing exercise. Once briefed, the students are let loose to browse the stands, observe the traders and shoppers alike, and to soak up the atmosphere of a real French market. They might stand in a doorway and scribble in a note-pad, or find a bar and order coffee, tapping away at the keys on their laptop.

After a while it will be time to return to the course room, where their tutor will be waiting to hear what they made of the Castillon market, and how they have interpreted it in their work. Short stories, poems, paintings… market day is a rich seam of creativity, and it’s waiting for you…