For travellers from abroad, one of the pleasures of visiting
France is to enjoy wandering through a traditional French market. And
why not! The market , "le marché", is an integral part of
life
in virtually all French towns and large villages, so much so that even
today the market can be seen as a well-surviving part of France's
historic heritage.
In countries like the UK and the USA, the market
is
largely a tradition that has been
revived,
in the form of "farmers'
markets"; in France, the tradition did not need to be revived, as
traditional fruit and vegetable markets, as well as markets offering a
much wider array of stalls, have always remained a part of life in
France. The
market, as a source of fresh fruit and vegetables, is an integral part
of France's famed tradition of good eating, and is one of those French
traditions that never died. And
for
that reason it is as authentic an experience as one can wish to find.
Most towns and large villages have a
large market
once a week; but in larger towns, markets may take place twice a week,
or even every day. Virtually every French town has its
covered
market (marché couvert), which is a permanent structure,
occupied by an array of market stalls; in a classic "marché
couvert", sometimes called "les Halles", most of the stalls will sell
fresh fruit and vegetables, and
some of the stall-holders will also be local market-gardeners, selling
their own produce among other products imported from further afield.
There is often a cluster of good restaurants to be found close to the
covered market in a French town, and chefs will each morning pay a
visit and bring back boxes of the freshest fruit and vegetables.
Other stalls are likely to include butchers, bakers,
and delicatessens offering specialities from other countries such as
Vietnam,
Spain, or Italy. In Paris, fruit and vegetable markets spring up on the
pavements under the trees beside wide boulevards on different days of
the week, often on Saturday or Sunday morning.
Large weekly markets are attended both
by local
stall-holders, and by a range of specialised traders who will set up
their stall on a different market each day of the week. Very often, the
larger town in an area will have its weekly market on Saturdays, and
smaller towns will have theirs on other days; in these smaller markets,
the number of itinerant stall-holders will depend on the number of
other markets on the same day within their area, and the relative
interest of each of these markets. Thanks to these itinerant
stallholders, larger weekly markets have a rich range of specialised
stalls, offering organic vegetables, food specialities from the region
or from other
countries, olives and Mediterranean specialities, tools, clothes,
second-hand books, garden plants, wine straight from the
producer, honey and a lot more.
A few markets, notably specialised
markets, have
acquired a national reputation; there is the famous flea market at the
Porte de Clignancourt in Paris, the flower market in Nice, the
Christmas markets in Strasbourg, the olive markets in Provence (photo),
or the fish market round the old port in Marseilles. There are wine
markets in Bordeaux, and famous gastronomic markets in Perigueux, the
heart of French truffle and foie-gras country. But generally speaking,
markets are a local or regional event, attended by local producers,
craftsmen or traders, and as such they are not the type of event that
has any reason to acquire a national reputation; markets are just a
part of the French way of living.
Obviously, it is fruit , vegetables and local produce in general that
are the mainspring of most markets, and the smaller the market, the
more it will tend to be an outlet for local producers. In rural areas,
it is still possible to find markets where small farmers sell just
their own produce - potatoes, vegetables and fruit in season, flowers,
perhaps farm-produced cheese, home-made bread, eggs, and even a living
rabbit or two, or week-old chicks. Although the number of small farms
in France has fallen dramatically in recent decades, there is still an
elderly generation of smallholders ("paysans") who attend weekly
markets in the way they have been doing for the past thirty or forty
years. Yet in spite of France's attachment to its rural heritages, the
smallholders selling their produce at a weekly market are survivors
from the old rural way of life which is fast vanishing. It is unusual
to see young smallholders on a market in rural France,
and while
the market itself, as a tradition, is not under threat, the nature of
small rural markets is changing, as is rural France in general. In
twenty years' time, there will still be plenty of markets in France;
but will there be as many, and will they still be rich in tradition as
they are today? That is less sure.
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