The traditional market in France

 It is always fun to visit a traditional vegetable market. on 21 st December, 2013 we visited the traditional market in France . I still remember the times, when the children were small and  we would go to Monda markets on Saturday  and come back with a car full of vegetables  and spend the whole of Sunday sorting them out. Today when the children have all left the home I do not visit the vegetable market anymore and just depend on the supermarket and unfortunately this cannot compare to the joy of bargaining and buying in a vegetable market. I could find a lot of these markets  in Florina Polis in Brazil, Perth in Australia and Lyons and Paris in France.  I could not but help comparing with our Monda market and the Raytu Bazar near Mehendipatnam. Our farmers and vegetable vendor are so poor but here they would come in a Van with their goods and drive this back. They would spend the time sipping coffee  and would be seated in a chair, which they would bring in their van. I wish I could see this day in India.

The market , "le marché", is an integral part of life in virtually all French towns and large villages, so much so that even today the market can be seen as a well-surviving part of France's historic heritage. There are huge "farmers' markets"; in France, the  traditional fruit and vegetable markets, as well as markets offering a much wider array of  food stuff. Typical French markets  are a mix between the farmers' market and a traders' market, with stalls offering local produce straight from the farm standing alongside fruit and vegetable stalls, cheese stalls and other stalls offering a full range of produce.       The largest markets in provincial France are often known as fairs (foires). French fairs are traditional extended markets that take place perhaps once or twice a year, on the local saint's day for instance. In a few places, they take place once a month. Virtually every French town has its covered market (marché couvert), which is a permanent structure, occupied by an array of market stalls.