Exploring a French Market in the UK

Exploring a French market is one of my favorite past-times so I was pleased to discover a French market here in England! Approximately twice year this French market comes to either Leamington Spa or to Warwick. As the market is only in town for 2 or 3 days, inevitably, I miss it by a narrow margin, but not this trip!

Thel lovely old Market Hall dominates the square

Today the French market was in Warwick, on the city square, not far from Warwick’s beautiful castle.  French “café music” drifted through the air — I would have preferred Patrick Bruel or Annie Villeneuve but no one asked.  Regardless, the smell of the tartiflette cooking and the vast selection of French cheeses to choose from made  up for the music.

Tartiflette at the French Market

Tartiflette is a cheesy potato dish from the Savoie and Haute Savoie region of France. It consists, in general, of sliced potatoes, lardons, onions, cream and reblochon cheese. That cheesy goodness  of the reblochon is what makes this dish amazing! Paired with a salad, it is the perfect comfort meal!

Reblochon cheese, potatoes, lardons, onions and cream to bring it all together

This large wok-style cooker shows the beginnings of the tartiflette as the market had just opened. The sliced onions were cooking with the lardons (bits of bacon) and the reblochon was in slow melt mode on top of the potatoes. Later it was all stirred together – yum! We added a nice green salad along with a baguette from the market and had a wonderful lunch.

Just a few of the goat cheeses for purchase

French Market Products

You can never have too much cheese so from the tartiflette I moved on to the cheese vendor. I plan to savor some of these cheeses for several days, considering I bought four different varieties. I bought all soft creamy centered cheeses but the one that is near perfect is the goat cheese. This was listed as “fresh goat cheese” and from the taste of it I think it must be only a day or two old. Goat cheese changes day to day so the younger it is, the milder, creamier and less crumbly it is. This little round was smooth and creamy with a taste that just melted in your mouth. I also believe that this taste perfection is enhance by the fact that it was made with raw goat milk.

Petits gateaux /cookies/biscuits

The vendeur (vendor) with the petits gateaux (cookies) was a delight to talk to. We had a wonderful conversation about the Mayenne department and its neighboring department the Maine et Loire where my favorite town of Angers is located. I was thrilled to have a native with whom to practice my French. The cookies he was selling are certainly not diet food but they are so good! So far my favorite is a little crescent shaped cookie that is rolled in walnuts and has a marzipan filling.

One of my Favorite Purchases!

Huge selection of honey

Have you ever seen so many different types of honey? The tournesol  (sunflower) honey is always difficult to find unless you are in the southern part of France so that was a definite purchase. This vendor actually produces honey in the Normandy region but he has a supplier in the south of France with whom he “trades” honey. From the south of France he gets acacia, lavender and tournesol honeys  and in turn he supplies the vendor in the south of France with honey that is indigenous only to the northern part of France.

French soaps from Marseille

We didn’t just buy food, although that was one of my main reasons for going to the market! One vendor had wonderful soaps of all different scents from Marseille. I was tempted by the vervaine and also by the lavender, but just plain miel (honey) always trumps all the other scents. It makes the bathroom smell heavenly.

Provencal tablecloths waving in the breeze

I’m always tempted by the Provencal tablecloths, but I think I have enough to last a lifetime at this point so I just enjoyed perusing the many different prints.

Hot crepe oozing with melty Nutella makes the perfect snack

Cookies and Crêpes

The cookie vendor was also selling crêpes.  I really thought I could pass this up even though the enormous jar of Nutella waiting to be spread on the warm crêpe was tempting, but in the end I came back. The crêpe was the perfect 11 o’clock snack to tide me over until our 1 pm lunch. Although the sky alternated between stormy blue and bright sunshine, even a few rain sprinkles can’t dampen the day when you are eating a Nutella-filled crêpe!

Two large bread ovens regularly turned out steamy baguettes

Market stalls

Strings of garlic, onions and whole serano hams fill this market stall