French Gathering Basket

Out to the garden empty, and home again with whatever had come ripe that morning. Found in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, this small hand-woven panier gathers a close, slightly irregular basketwork around a bent-branch handle worn smooth by carrying. Little baskets like it were made across the Provençal countryside for the small harvests, the first figs, a handful of eggs, the herbs cut for supper. Sylvie fills it with a few apples on the counter, or keeps it by the door for whatever the garden gives.