The French markets

By |Published On: August 5, 2024|Categories: Europe, France|363 words|2 Comments|

Fruit and veggies with flavour!

Also in Cherbourg, whilst looking for a boulangerie (bakery) for croissants and baguettes, we ran into our first marché (market). Here, in a jumble of stalls spread out in the town square and adjoining streets, an array of mouth-watering food was on offer; delicious fresh fruit and veggies, stinky and less-stinky cheeses, saucissons, fruit-de-mer, and home-made honey and jams.

Different types of tasty and juicy tomatoes, and other assortments of yummie fruits.

Unlike the mostly unripe, rock-solid and tasteless fruit and vegetables one can buy in Australian and Dutch supermarkets year-round, here in the marché everything is seasonal, often local, and just oozes flavour and ripeness.

Different types of potatoes and a range of fresh and tasty veggies.

That ripeness actually caught us out when bought things ‘in advance’ thinking that stuff needs a week to ripen, only to find out that it is actually already ripe and just needs eating, right now. What a feast!

Butter is serious business here

Another delicious discovery at these marchés is that butter is taken seriously, very seriously, in this neck of the woods. To the extent that there is always at least one stall where butter is the only product on offer.

Butter by the kilo.

At these stalls Breton butter, in a variety of saltinesses, demi-salé, salé, sel de mer (an interesting novelty version, imho), is on offer by the kilo, and ready to be wrapped and taken away. According to the (undoubtedly sound medical) advice from the Brittany Tourism bureau, butter is ‘not fattening when eaten in reasonable quantities’. Already huge fans of butter, we have been indulging in ‘reasonable quantities’ of Breton butter on freshly baked and still warm and crunchy baguettes ever since.

Of course, there is also an endless variety of cheeses to choose from, including those made from raw milk. Still a rarity  in Australia!

Needless to say, these marchés have since become one of our favourite past times to stock up on food and where possible we plan our visits to harbours to coincide with the day of the week they occur on.

Lots of choice of different garlic and sausages.

2 Comments

  1. caro September 26, 2024 at 9:52 am - Reply

    Wat een heerlijke dingen allemaal en wat een kleurrijk geheel.

    • Frederieke September 26, 2024 at 10:06 am - Reply

      Heerlijk hè! Het is elke keer weer een feest om op zo’n markt rond te lopen.

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Different experiences in Cherbourg
Two invasions in one day