June 26, 2009 – A New Marche

The French have two things; their opinions and their love of food. Every French person has an opinion about the best wine, the best restaurant, the best part of Paris to live, etc. etc. and of course, the best market to buy food. Which is not surprising. They don't eat to live, they live to eat. And the basis of good food is good ingredients which in France means fresh. That is why the big supermarkets like we have in the States haven't really caught on. Instead, the are myriad local shops, each specializing in meat, cheese, bread, wine, deli, or vegetables where the French buy their stuff, daily. But to me, it's hard to say which market is the "best" since they all sell the same stuff at the same price. In fact, there are so many shops, all identical, that it baffles me how they can all stay in business. My local shops are just 4 blocks from our flat. But there is another set of shops, just a half block further down the street!

And to further add to my "baffleness" is that around each of these shops, about 3 times each week, is an open-air farmer’s market. Now these open-air markets are very interesting. They are all over Paris. There are dozens of open-air markets daily somewhere in Paris. On any given day you can find one. All that matters is how far you want to travel. So on top of the local shops competing with each other, you have the local open-air market competing with the shops, yet they all stay in business.

To me, again, these open-air markets are all the same. They are built the night before the market opens and torn down in the afternoon after the market closes. Posts are placed into permanent locking holes in the street or pavement and a canvas or plastic sheet is suspended over the posts. The farmers then set up their stalls in the early morning. Typically, these markets are built in the local square. Sometimes the market extends through one or two streets [or more]. In these cases, it looks to me that the local shops merely extend their store fronts by setting up a stall.....and that makes sense to me since it tries to stifle some of the competition. Invariably, the market terminates in the local town square.

And so, it was no surprise, that as I was trying to figure out what to buy and how to ask for it, at my local Marche Maubert, that this Asian guy in front of me, who spoke English, decided to help. As we spoke, I gushed how much I really liked Marche Maubert, the fresh ingredients, the negotiating, and then he burst my bubble. "If you think this market is great, you really need to go to Marche d'Aligre. It's better. It's bigger. It's open 6 days a week and it's cheaper. This local market is far too bourgeois. The real French go to Marche d'Aligre."

He said he was only shopping at the Marche Maubert because he didn't have the time to get over to Marche d'Aligre. Then I remembered that Wendy Lyn, our concierge, had mentioned le Marche d'Aligre and the penny dropped. Plus, the guy kept saying, "this cabbage, half the price at d'Aligre, these cherries, a third the price at d’Aligre...well you kinda get the message.

The next day Katherine and I walked to Marche d'Aligre; about a mile or so across the Seine near the Bastille. First of all, the market is huge. Five or six blocks long with a covered market and square right in the middle and on both sides of the street. Stalls fill both sides of the streets that are blocked off from traffic. There are people everywhere. You can hear the market from about four blocks away. In order to accurately describe this market, let me use places that all you world travellers are familiar with. It reminds me of Washington Square with those independent rock bands blasting out their music. Petticoat Lane with the buskers screaming out what's on sale. It's as crowded as Mott Street on any given day. Or the Barras in Glasgow, on the weekend, with people selling the same stuff from 10 or 15 different stalls. Or, for the cost-conscience, it's like an open air Costco. [Yes, it really is cheaper by at least fifty percent or more!!]

It's great. We go here all the time now. We eat lunch at a little bakery. We drink a glass of wine at the Baron Rouge. We buy fresh fruit, veggies, bread, meat, and fish, not to mention "bricolage" (haberdashery). I am very happy. I have my first French opinion - the best market to go to is Marche d'Aligre. And, just when I think I've found the pot of gold at the end of the proverbial french rainbow of markets, yet another french guy offers up another opinion. As I gushed over the vegetables at d'Aligre, he quipped, have you been to the "bio" market at Blvd Raspail? You must go there on Sundays... Ah, another market to experience....Yes, all the markets are the same yet different.