"Market days in the sun" a Mézin Travel Page by mke1963

Mezin is one of those little French towns that you thought existed only on the big screen. Sleepy for much of the week, small birds flitting around the square, warm dusty stone arcades and a slow pace of life.
Looks can be deceiving, as always, as Mezin is a wealthy little town with an active, cosmopolitan outlook.
It is charming, like all the towns in the Pays d'Albret, but it manages to stay right up to date with the world. behind those shutters there are kids surfing the net, grannies selling on E-Trade, and families watching watching CNN.
The beauty of rural France is that the population has successfully kept pace with technology, while retaining traditional lifestyles.

The highlight of the week is the Sunday market. It's where people come to buy their vegetables, flowers, cheeses and meats for the week. They could (and some do) go to the open-all-hours hypermarkets, but shopping allows the time for meeting friends, having a chat, finding out the latest gossip, and maybe even a game of boules behind the church.
Tourists are welcome here, as across France, but tourism here is in the "watching and taking part". Little is put on for the visitor...events are put on for the people of the area, and tourists are as welcome as old Monsieur Laval with his blind poodle and the brattish Jureau family from the next village.

Mezin and the immediate area is full of forests, fields, country lanes and tracks, vineyards, a few museums, old churches and villages galore.
Chuck Yeager parachuted to safety near Mezin during the Second Wortld War, adding a little snippet of contemporary history. In the summer of 1944, the area around Mezin, Sos and Houeilles saw some of the fiercest battles against the Nazis by the French Resistance. Small plaques in many places commemorate the brave villagers and heros of the Resistance: more than 50 years later, the graves and plaques are still marked with fresh flowers every week.