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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