Markets in Paris

One of the things I was most excited for when we rented an apartment in Paris was having access to a kitchen and all the great markets in the city. I might have even been more excited about visiting the markets than I was about the museums or the Eiffel Tower… MarchÃ© Richard Lenoir Boulevard Richard Lenoir, starting at Place de la Bastille [Metro: Bastille, lines 5 & 9; or BrÃ©guet Sabin, line 5] Thursdays and Sundays ~9am to ~1pm I already mentioned the MarchÃ© Aligre near the apartment we stayed at in the 11th. The other market we were close to is the MarchÃ© Richard Lenoir, sometimes also called the MarchÃ© Bastille. We visited on a Sunday morning, when the market was at its liveliest. There were flowers, produce, seafood, meat, prepared foods, and even clothing and furniture. We picked up some snacks here and there, and by the time we reached the end of the market, we had cobbled together the best Sunday brunch ever. :) This we ate while reading the Sunday paper (with a napping baby) on a bench at a little park at the market’s north end. Rue Montorgueil 1st arrondissement, just north of Les Halles and Saint-Eustache Church. Before the end of the shops in the north, rue Montorgueil turns into rue des Petits Carreaux. [Metro: Etienne Marcel, line 4; or Sentier, line 3] Check individual shops and restaurants for hours. Many of them close Sunday and some Monday. There are also these market streets throughout Paris — lanes filled with individual grocers selling their own specialty items. I had high hopes to hit rues Montorgueil, Cler (near the Eiffel Tower), and Mouffetard (south of the Latin Quarter), but ended up only making it to Montorgueil. No matter, though, there was much to take in here. Rue Montorgueil is situated in the area where the historic Parisian markets, Les Halles, used to be (the one and only David Liebovitz has more on the history, as well as a great guide to the shops and restaurants on the street). We actually ended up coming here twice because, silly me, most of the shops were closed on Sunday, and actually some still on Monday as well. It was rainy both days we came to rue Montorgueil, and on Monday, we decided we should take refuge somewhere and get some lunch. After eyeing a number of places, we decided to head into La Grappe d’Orgueil (5 rue des Petits Carreaux) because their special of the day was boeuf bourguignon. It turned out to be the right decision… Nothing hits the spot on a cold, rainy day like eating boeuf bourguignon while sitting next to the radiator… unless it’s molten chocolate cake and a cafÃ© crÃ¨me for dessert. :) Right next to La Grappe d’Orgueil was this Italian grocer called Delitaly (5 rue des Petits Carreaux), whose window displays were too enticing to pass up. We picked up some Italian salads and fresh burrata here for dinner that night. I also really wanted to check out two shops on David Liebovitz’s list: the specialty foods and baking supply shop G. Detou (58 rue Tiquetonne) and the restaurant supply house E. Dehillerin (18 rue CoquilliÃ¨re), both close to rue Montorgueil. E. Dehillerin was closed by the time I arrived at the end of the day, but I did make it to G. Detou and got all kinds of goodies there: salted caramels, some good-quality foie gras as gifts, Edmond Faillot mustard, vanilla beans from Madagascar, sel de GÃ©urande, and some beautiful Persian blue salt. (Also thanks to D. Lebovitz, I delighted much over the pun on the name G. Detou [j’ai de tout or I have everything].) La Grande Ã‰picerie 38 rue de SÃ¨vres [Metro: Vaneau or SÃ¨vres-Babylone, line 10]Mon-Sat 8:30 am – 9 pm Finally, who could go to Paris without stopping at La Grande Ã‰picerie? I think we spent over an hour here. Everything was just so beautiful. Seriously — the produce was gleaming, and some of it was displayed on glass pedestals! They don’t really like you taking photos in there, but I snuck a few anyway. It was too unreal. See what I mean? We got a jar of the Christine Ferber jam pictured above, thinking it was pretty and would make a good gift. We ended up keeping it and opening it up to try on Mother’s Day when my sister and her husband were in town. The guys tried it first and declared it to be amazing jam (just picture them taking off that ribbon and polka-dotted cover, if you can). The guys then proceeded to analyze why it was amazing and decided it was because the jam was concentrated and struck the perfect balance between tart and sweet. So there you have it — Christine Ferber jam, recommended now by David Lebovitz and my husband and brother-in-law. Others There are tons of other markets in Paris, many of which aren’t even food-related, that we didn’t have the chance to check out, like the MarchÃ© les Enfants Rouges (the oldest covered market in Paris) and the MarchÃ© Saint-Pierre, which sells textiles. We did make it to the MarchÃ© aux Puces St-Ouen de Clignancourt, the big flea market north of the city (you can find helpful directions here). We didn’t get anything, though there was a lot of nice furniture that was fun to look at. I’d heard that the MarchÃ© aux Puces de la Porte de Vanves is much more of a real flea market, but it seemed more out of the way, whereas Clignancourt was at least close to Montmartre. Next time, I’d like to look for some brocantes and vide-greniers as well. We also went to a lot of ProvenÃ§al markets during the week we spent in the south of France, which I’ll share about tomorrow, along with some of the meals we put together with the market fare we brought home.