Hello from across the pond!
After 20 hours of travel door to door to get to Ste. Marine, Finistere, where my father was born and where I now co-own a teeny house on the port with my sister, we slept 8 hours then raced to the famous farmers market in Bénodet which is open on Mondays, rain or shine, all year long.
A farmers market on a Monday? Yes! For as long as I can remember, the markets in these quaint villages in this part of Brittany have been staggered throughout the week. The one in Guilvinec is on Tuesdays, Ste. Marine is on Wednesdays, Pont L'Abbé is on Thursdays, Fouesnant is on Fridays. This way, there is always access to fresh farm produce, artisanal sheep and goat's milk cheeses and rustic breads and a rotisserie chicken on a spit which drips delicious juices and fat onto the farm potatoes cooking below. Heaven.
The rotisserie chicken and pork vendor is by far the most popular at the Benodet market — so popular, in fact, that there are three of them here and each boasts a steady line from open to close. It's something I've always wanted to bring to the Hastings Farmers Market and I honestly cannot believe that some entrepreneurial person hasn't come up with this idea stateside.
Wandering through the market, I found myself making many comparisons to ours. You'll be happy to know that while French markets have always been considered the gold standard, there were many things I found we do better. For starters, the produce vendors are not necessarily the farmers growing the produce. In fact, if you look closely each of their stalls clearly indicates items that are grown locally (Brittany is known for its sweet strawberries) and those which are not. Citrus, avocados and bananas will be clearly marked as coming from Spain or Morocco, for instance. Whereas we simply won't allow any produce not grown in the Hudson River Valley region.
At the orchard where we bought some melon and nectarines, the vendor asked us when we planned on eating our melon. Today? Tomorrow? The end of the week? We told him our menu for the following day and he spent a good five minutes picking out a melon that would be at its peak on Tuesday. No one in line complained because he would be doing the same for them. And, boy, did he nail it.
There are far more non-food vendors than we would allow selling everything from furniture hardware to plastic hair clips to umbrellas because, yes, it rains a lot in Brittany. We are much more strict about the non-food items sold at market requiring that they be related to food or cooking in some way, or use upycled materials. There are no fewer than three stalls at the Bénodet market selling colorful market baskets from around the globe for those who come to the market without one. Totes are not big here where wheelie bags and baskets are preferred.
They do sell a lot of clothing at the markets here which I love...because any excuse to shop... And it's the same exact clothing you will find at all the regional markets. If someone doesn't have the size you want in the wooly sweater you like, you can ask the vendor if they will be restocked by the Fouesnant market on Friday. Tags are market made in Italy but I have my doubts.
One thing you would never find at our market is a vendor who would comment openly about your body type, as the gentleman who sold me a pair of chocolate brown twill pants, did. "You have the exact same butt shape as my wife," he said, with Dan standing right there. "These pants suit her".
They had a knife vendor (cool!) but no knife sharpener (fyi, ours will be there next week).
And, the one thing the Bénodet market, and most French markets have over us, is a cafe just steps away where you can enjoy a glass of hard Breton cider or rosé while you watch the vendors break down.