loisco

Is there a website where I can find a list of farmers markets in France. We are traveling through the Dordogne, Burgundy, etc. Or is there a book that lists them. ? Thank you.

sfgirl42

I don't know if there is a specific book for farmers markets for all of France. I usually visit Ariege and Aude and local (based in those departments) websites usually have listings. I'd do a search by department+markets.
That search brought up many listings, including:
http://www.france4families.com/Dordo...gneMarkets.htm
http://www.frenchentree.com/fe-franc...e.asp?ID=10846

the information is out there, it just takes a couple minutes and the initiative...

StCirq

Loads of guidebooks list them. Loads of cookbooks list them. Loads on the web, too.

In the Dordogne the main markets are:

Le Bugue: Tuesday big; Saturday, small.
Sarlat: Saturday, big; Wednesday, small.
Lalinde and Le Buisson (and Domme in summer): Thursday
Montignac: Friday (also Les Eyzies in mid-summer).
St-Cyprien: Sunday.

There are loads more, but those are the main ones.

grandmere

Patricia Wells' Food Lovers Guide to France has a list of them.

cigalechanta

There are so many cities, villages in France that it is impossible to have a list. You can google each part of France you are interested in.

cigalechanta

There is a book, Markets of Provence, it covers about seven markets.

Michael

Most of the big outdoor markets include local producers, at least in the Dordogne. However, the majority of the sellers are not local producers. It's easy to tell; if a merchant is selling peaches from Spain, he is not a local producer. Local producers tend to have limited seasonal selections.

cigalechanta

MICHAEL,
YOU must read Market day in Provence by the late distinguished Michele A Predelle.

"Romantic notions of local terroir and fermier-tended produce for sale in the traditional open-air markets of France will be dashed on these shores by the recent English translation of Michèle de la Pradelle’s Market Day in Provence.

“The Carpentras Friday market,” writes Jack Katz in his foreword, “creates a seemingly unique place without committing any indictable fraud.”

The book, which won the Prix Louis Castex de l'Académie Fran‡aise, is also sure to dim the credibility of those breathless, Enchanted April-style books that etol the 'authenticity' of French produce and the 'connection' of the French to their soil.

De la Pradelle, a French ethnologist, deliciously eviscerates the Carpentras market (near Avignon) and the faux-produce, cheeses and charcuterie on offer. Her thorough research puts paid to the fakery of the small farm and artisanal products seemingly on display: fruits and vegetables are grown industrially and vendors buy their pâtés and cheeses from large suppliers.

Several merchants quoted in the book openly admit to their playacting, which conjures images of speedy purchasing trips to the MIN (Marché d’Intérêt National - or gigantic wholesaler) followed by the careful placement of dirt under fingernails, donning of battered straw chapeau and blue farmer's apron, and labelling of 'Cornichons' and 'Confiture d'Abricot du Pays' in child-like script on Mason jars."

nukesafe

Aw --- you mean there is no Easter Bunny?

loisco

I haven't been here for a while and I forgot how great you are for information. Thank you.

Michael

Cigalechanta,

I am not surprised, and this goes for "organic." On the other hand, when one visits a market or vendor regularly, one does get to know what is local and what is not. But then I am not a purist in these matters.

kevin_widrow

Mimi -

Thanks for the tip - the book is on my next Amazon order list. Should make for interesting reading.

Although it doesn't address the OP's area of interest, purists visiting the Luberon can check out the "Marché Paysan" listed here http://tiny.cc/vfyud - these are markets where produce is sold only by the actual producer (as certified by the Luberon Parc).

I'm thinking perhaps similar is done elsewhere in France ??

-Kevin

flanneruk

kevin_widrow is the person to follow here.

The French for "farmers' market" absolutely ISN'T 'marché'. Practically all the lists and references you've been given before kevin's aren't to farmers' markets at all. They're to open-air markets (which is all a marché is) - which till recently mostly consisted of peripatetic professional market traders, taking food they'd bought wholesale round a weekly circuit of towns. Few ever pretended the food was local, or grown by them, and if you ever asked them where that nice chacuterie came from, they'd rarely bother lying much and you'd get an answer like "I know this great charcutier 100 miles away". Now, of course, many even of those food traders have given up, so a growing proportion of the stalls sell crap Chinese clothing.

The French for 'farmers' market' is 'marché paysan' everywhere. Google it and the department (or sometimes the region) you're staying in, and you should find either local listings, or references to individual farmers' markets.

Gretchen

The days are listed in the Michelin Green Guides to the various towns in France.
There is a big coffee table book of the markets also.

avalon

This site lists all the market days in France by region

http://www.francemag.com/Editorial.aspx?page=3074

kerouac

The municipal website of any town in France will give you the market days, hours and location of the local market(s). It is one of the most important things for just about anyone to know, not just tourists.

Coquelicot

To my surprise, when we took a friend to the Vernon market that had just been extolled in the NY Times last summer, she was disappointed. In the Greenmarket in NYC, she said, everything is raised nearby and a lot of it is organic. She wasn't impressed by any of the markets we went to in Normandy. I guess we had raised her hopes too high.

A few years ago we were at the small Sunday market in La Ferte Vidame and the busiest stall was the one with local organic produce.

And is it just me, or do markets seem smaller over the last few years?

kevin_widrow

Coquelicot -

It's just you !

-Kevin

StCirq

Definitely just you, Coquélicot. The markets in the Dordogne seem to be getting bigger and more crowded all the time, but that's just because in high season they are crawling with throngs of tourists. Go in February and you get the real picture.

And while the markets I listed in the Dordogne may not be authentic marchés paysans, and in summer they have their share of items Made in China, they are certainly full of local producers as well. If you revisit the same markets over and over, as I have done for years, you come to know exactly where all that produce and charcuterie and fish is coming from. Some of it is bought and re-peddled at market, but a great deal of it comes from small producers, mostly within a small area of the Périgord, but some, like My Cheese Guy, who drives from Villefranche-en-Périgord 5 days a week up to the local markets.

kerouac

Well, one thing that people should know is that the majority of markets in France are not "farmers' markets" but just the outdoor street markets of professional merchants. Most of the vendors are well versed in the products sold (as they should be), but really, when you see a seafood vendor in Dordogne, you don't really think he fished for the stuff himself, do you? During the growing season, however, you will indeed see stalls selling dirty carrots and potatoes or eggs or chickens which the people have produced themselves. At the same time, it would be naive to believe that local production automatically makes the quality better. That is something that you learn after years of practice, and tourists have little chance of sticking around long enough to find out.