Supermarkets VS Local markets

If you would ever try to reach me and I am unreachable, it is probably that I am in a French supermarket. I get lost in their supermarkets every time. When I go shopping in the Albert Heijn in the Netherlands, I just go through all the aisles of the supermarket and get what I need. As I go shopping in France, I also go through all the aisles. Small problem: the aisles are huge, I need to stop every time to get a look at the new accessories of Maybelline’s nail polishes. Also, I can’t stop looking at the crabs and lobsters in the aquarium.

The aisles in the French supermarkets are big. I mean one lane of 100 meters only selling yogurts. Yogurts for children, yogurts with different fruits, yogurts made of soya etc… The supermarkets sell TV’s, laptops, kitchen tools, clothing and many more non-food products. You can buy fresh fish, fresh meat and even fresh sushi! To summarize, French supermarkets sell everything you need in life, without having to go another store.

The market I have been to was a market at 20 minutes driving distance from Nantes. I went to the market with my aunt, who still has a Dutch passport and her husband, Jacques (yes he is French).

When we arrived at the market and the first thing that caught my eye was the amount of oysters that were sold. The price of the oysters was, compared to the Netherlands, very low and the first purchases of the day were a few oysters.

As we are in France, you can’t miss the cheese on a market like this. The assortment of different cheeses was big and you could really notice the fact that the cheeses were handmade. In the picture below, you can see the assortment of different cheeses.

We continued our tour over the market, we stopped at two other stalls. One for fish and the other one for olives. The fish sold at the stall was amazingly fresh (if I would have to believe my uncle) and we bought a bag filled with small shrimps. At the olive stall, we bought a mix of a few different olives. The fun part of the olive stall is that you could taste all the olives! Little picks in between the olives give you the chance to pick the olives out of the big bowls.

The next two stalls sold fruits, vegetables and precooked meals. The quality of the fruits and vegetables was great. And if you may have a little doubt about the quality, you could just taste! Almost every fruit had a small plate with pieces of the fruit to taste. The other stall was selling precooked meals. The market was on a Sunday so I am guessing French people don’t cook on Sundays and just get their food from the markets.

At the end of the day all stalls sell their foods cheaper. The fish stalls even have small auctions for the last pieces of fish and it truly looks like a war zone. The market was surrounded by bars and many people were sitting outside. As we joined the people on the terraces, my aunt told me that the it is completely normal to eat the food you just bought on the market at the bar. This is because the bars do not sell food and let people free to enjoy their own food.

The rest of the early afternoon, we sat down enjoying the sun, beers, olives and the small shrimps. The atmosphere at the market was lovely, everybody was enjoying their selves with their friends and family and the people who worked at the bars and the market were very friendly, even though they did not speak English.

Photo gallery