Saturday morning (June 14th) I went to the neighboring town of St. Amand-Montrond. On Saturday mornings they have a market. Naturally you will find all sorts of fresh produce, meats and cheeses. You will also find a type of flea market atmosphere where you can buy clothing, leather goods, baskets, knickknacks, and all sorts of other oddities! If you are ever in France and the town has a market day put that at the top of your list as it is a wonderful way to see the culture in action!
This is a picture of one of the open air stalls as we walked to the fresh food building.
The first order of business for the day was to purchase my first croissant of my visit! I truly believe these are made by angels!
At this market the fresh foods are actually housed in a warehouse type building. This allows for the open market with easy access to electricity and protection from the elements in poor weather.
The french eat a much broader variety of poultry than our usual chicken and turkey. In this picture the birds to the right are actually ducks, then there is a variety of different chickens.
You can see through the picture above and this one here that the seller arranged them by size. At the end of the case (pictured on the far left above) you will see the seller also had rabbit today.
Say Cheese! The French LOVE their cheese! In this picture you see cheese produced from cows milk. There are some sellers that specialize in cheese made from goat's milk. Cheese is a huge industry and where the cheese is produced (think location, climate, grains and grass the animals are fed), type of animal (cow v. goat, and various breeds) all play a role in the type of milk that is produced and the flavor of the subsequent cheese it produces.
Not to be left out, here you see a fish monger. This seller had shrimp, scallops, and all sorts of different kinds of fish.
This final seller offered both cheese and sausages. The sausages are also known by region and the meat used to produce the sausage (beef or pork) are also affected by the same situations that affect the cheese (region, climate, breed, type of feed such as grass fed or grain fed).
I hope you enjoyed this small tour of the market! Hopefully, I'll be able to show you more before my stay is over!
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