Les Marchés de la France :: Melbourne Travel Photographer

As you can see by that last frame, not everybody loves a market!

These images are a mixture from two markets we visited while away.

Firstly, the oldest food market in Paris, built in 1615 under the rule of King Louis XIII; the Le Marche des Enfants Rouges. The name, which literally means the Market of the Red Children, refers to the red uniform worn by the children of the orphanage that was located nearby.

It was an amazing market, and the food we bought and dined on from here curled your toes it was that darn good.
Unfortunately, I visited on the Saturday I arrived, and before I had unpacked.
The last thing I wanted to do was take pictures .. until of course I got there.
Um, wow. Spectacular, people, tables, laughter, food, children, colour, light .. a visual feast.

We left before the following Saturday, and I never did capture it how it lived & breathed.
Other days were more low key, and, as I try to immerse in the culture on holidays ( rather than be a tourist ), I felt I should be more reverent as I wandered around, and less happy-snappy.

Yes, I can be a bit weird about such things :)


 

Marché des Enfants Rouges | 39 rue de Bretagne | Marais District





The other market/s we attended were in the 2nd half of our trip, which we spent in the Loire Valley.

We stayed in a pretty little village called Bourgueil, and despite the huge Hyper-U supermarket down the road, and another smaller supermarket in the village, it seems everyone just shops at the local markets every Tuesday and Saturday.
After our lovely host ( and i'll elaborate on our delightful accomodations in another future post - it deserves a specialty highlight ) told us we should NOT miss the Saturday market, we were amused to find lots of ricketty tables full of junk, racks of preloved and handmade clothes, what i'm pretty sure were 'copycat' Laguiole knives at the price point they were being sold at, and bins of LP records etc.

Fabulous for old people and hipsters, but there's no lingering and browsing/digging for marketgold with kids and an easily bored husband. It was HUGE, there were people everywhere and there were rides for the kids. Surely they can't do this every Saturday?

No-one appeared to be making any incredible fortune, but it's obviously a big local drawcard.





Our "landlord" also advised we go to the Tuesday market, with more of an emphasis on food.
Since we were renting a self-contained cottage, I was still cooking every night ( if we ate out, we did this during the day - long days out and about left everyone pretty much exhausted by even'time.. plus .. the weather was divine and our cottage had a pool. The kids could.not.wait to get home every evening and swim,swim,swim ) so a fresh 'local' shop made us feel like locals :)

So imagine our surprise when we went back into town on the Tuesday, to find a lot of the same stalls from Saturday, just as many people ( i'm telling you, the roads are closed, you park MILES away, and the crush of people is like Melbourne peak hour ).

OMG, we were overwhelmed .. people lined up for their favourite butcher and happily chatted and waited. The one thing I did notice ( and appreciate ) was the slower pace. As I mentioned earlier, the lure of the Euro did not seem to be a big factor for many stalls.. although i'm sure all the regular food traders do well.

Also, if you find yourself without baguette and cheese on a Sunday, you'd better have a back-up plan.
Unlike in Australia where a day of rest is non-existant, even the Hyper-U was shut.
And the pharmacie.
Probably the police station too.

Not.such.a.bad.thing.





Does that House Specialty look a bit boring to you?

Because OMG, we devoured it. Foodies, I can't even remember how to describe it.. like a huge glazed pastry thing with lashings of vanilla custard-cream in the middle and rock sugar on the outer? All I know is it was so fresh, it seemed a sin to let it sit and perhaps curdle.. you know, and so, we didn't want to sin..





( This is not a trash can or an ashtray, thankyou )

Goodness, it's nice to have some time off and be a little bit more personal on here.
I hope you're also enjoying a little change from the usual too.


xx Lea