Market sundays

Depending on my mood, Sunday can either be a much-appreciated pause at the end of the week or a stupid, stagnant day where you can’t go to the grocery store. I’ve always been ambivalent about Sundays, which–even in a nest of coffee and the New York Times–still carry the stench of church and homework night (not that I went to church…or did my homework).

In America, Sundays can often be ignored. The American city hardly bats an eye at the Sabbath, and, when every day seems to bleed into the next, a Sunday can very well resemble a bustling Wednesday. Not so in Paris.

The American 24 hour supermarket gives way to the French 35 hour work week. Everything shuts down and a heavy, lazy, “spend time with your family and relax damnit” air settles on the city. I’m sorry, you’ll have to wait until Monday to get your shampoo from Franprix. You see, Paris is eating a big lunch at its grandmother’s house and then taking a leisurely stroll in the Tuileries.

Fortunately, if there is anything more traditional that the lazy French Sunday, it is the busy French market. And the dust that settles on Paris is quickly stirred up again by  armies of farmers, butchers, florists, and fromagers, hawking their goods to brutal grand-mamans with straw baskets and sharp tongues. Day of rest indeed. There are certainly detractors of outdoor markets–they have become touristic, bourgeois, overpriced. Of course, this depends where you go: a marche in Neuilly is sure to be more pricey than one in the 18th arrondissement.

It will also be less fun. Because, of course, as lovely as brie and baguette may be there are other cuisines which flourish in Paris. I live near a large African community and although I do feel a little gentrification guilt (seriously I feel like this post should come with a disclaimer against the dangers of orientalism, maybe accompanied by an Edward Said quote), it’s also a lot of fun to go and see what’s sold in Paris’s ethnic markets.

I know nothing at all about African cuisine–although a couscous may be in the works–but it’s worth taking a look around. You’ll find shops and outdoors stands selling goods from the Maghreb, sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean.  You’ll find everything you would in a traditional market–but also okra, plantains, root vegetables, fish, spices, bright fabrics. And if you, like me, are not exactly sure what to do with a blimbin plum, no worries. There’s plenty of familiar produce here as well, and no need to embarrass yourself trying to buy something whose name you don’t know. I personally went for trout.

You can reach the Chateau Rouge market on the 4 line (stop Chateau Rouge). Clotilde at Chocolate & Zucchini also has a list of markets from the mairie of Paris. These are only marches volants, not permanent markets like that at Chateau Rouge, but it’s very useful.