Cooking
from the Markets.Com
French
Markets
From the formality of the upscale marche couvert de
Passy in Paris' 16th
arondissement to a fromager volant in a small Loire village, the
markets of France leave no doubt about the role of fresh, high
quality ingredients for the kitchen. Even this small cheese shop in a
truck (below right) in the small village of Meung-sur-Loire (south of Orleans)
has 50
varieties of quality cheeses. For Paris 50 cheese varieties might
have seemed a small number but in a village of under 10,000 people,
this cheese market van is not even the only source of quality
fromage.
Permanence and Transience: The imposing facade of a Paris market building and a
small Loire village market's bag logo. In the marches in Paris's 16th arrondissment (on the western edge of the city adjacent to the Bois
de Boulogne), there are numerous sources of fresh ingredients. First among them is the Marche de Passy. A permanent building
(marche couvert) open daily (except Mondays) in the morning and early evening. This market has small permanent stands for
each vendor as shown above on the left.
Transience is a relative thing in French markets. Though the open air (marches
en plein aire) are outdoors and in temporary-looking pipe-frame tents
they are rock-steady in the quality of their offerings and
reliability. As with all of Paris's markets (whether indoor or out),
the actual vending space in the market may well be occupied by a
vendor whose family has offered foodstuffs for sale from that very
spot for two or more generations.
Open air markets are also transient in that they meet no more than three days per week with many vendors having a stall in
more than one market around the city (or the countryside in the case of rural markets). They are also called marches volantes - flying markets - to
suggest their mobility.
In the village of Meung-sur-Loire, the marche en plein aire (open air or marche decouvert) meets in the main plaza near the
church and the chateau on Thursday afternoons and Sunday mornings. The image above on the right is the logo of this marche volant which
is emblazoned on the bags used by the vendors and on some small
signs. The market is well-attended and overflows into numerous small streets - one of which includes a marche couvert of sorts that
contains vendor tables with wonderful breads baked of locally milled
flours.
The breads displayed in both of the photos above are all wonderful French breads. The left shows a boulanger at the Marche de Passy, the right
a boulanger's ordinary table inside the Marche de Meung-sur-Loire. The breads simply-presented on the right were the very best pain au
levain (sour dough) that we have ever had in France.
Readers of Simenon's Maigret novels may remember Meung-sur-Loire as the location of the Chief Inspector's weekend country home. It is also the
location in Alexandre Dumas' Three Musketeers wherein D'Artagnan recuperates.