Le Marché

Our favorite days of the week are Thursdays and Saturdays because those are the days of our local Marché at Avenue Saxe. We rarely miss a market day. Today was the last market day before we leave Paris and it was a little bittersweet going early this morning. 

Les Invalides

Kate walking to the Marché 

It's about a 10 or so minute walk from our apartment past Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides to a street behind the École Militaire.

Back of l'École Militaire and
view of Tour Eiffel

Kate at the Marché entrance

Marché awnings

There is just nothing comparable to our Marché at home in the States. We soon found our favorite stands. Kate liked the man in the background of the picture below with the strawberries. He always found the best leeks for her to use to make her quiche and had the best Gariguette strawberries. The Gariguettes are from southern France and had a longer shape and sweeter taste. We had to buy those every time.

Leeks

Gariguette strawberries in the
plastic containers

All the produce at the Marché is presented so beautifully. French law requires the vendors to disclose where the produce is from. This week we have had clementines almost as large as oranges from Israel.

So many types of lettuce

Kate and I can't figure out how the French cook with the huge bulbs of fennel. We do like the convenience of being able to buy beets already cooked.

There are several flower stands. We love to get flowers at the Marché.

Last week we bought geraniums at the Marché to plant in the window boxes at the apartment. They make me so happy!

View of geraniums from the street

Geraniums on the ledge

The French women take their seafood very seriously. There are several fishmongers and a huge array of seafood choices. Kate has her favorite fishmonger in his rubber apron and boots. In the winter it looks like such a cold job with all that ice and cold fish.

Oysters

Giving oyster advice

Crabs and Snails

Kate's favorite fishmonger

We love the stand that has rustic bread with walnuts or raisins and several types of brioche bread. They have brioche rolls with little chocolate chips. Kate's favorite is the flat Bressane brioche covered with sugar and with pockets of butter in it.

Chocolate Chip Brioche Rolls

 Bressane brioche

Bread Stand

We also liked to buy our eggs at the Marché. They are large and fresh and the yolks are more orange than at home. We would usually buy a flat of 15 eggs. We had our favorite stand where I would buy roquefort cheese for our baguette sandwiches and the eggs. There was a kind man there who didn't mind my accented French.

Egg and cheese stand

We also enjoyed the fresh pear/apple juice with no added sugar.

Juice stand

This is just a sampling of what we would find at the Marché. You can see why we loved going every week.