Le Marche des Enfants Rouges

Le Marche des Enfants Rouges is the oldest food market in Paris, built in 1615 under the rule of King Louis XIII. The name literally means “ Market of the Red Children” and in my research all I found was the name comes from a nearby 17th century orphanage where the children wore red uniforms. What that has to do with the price of cabbage, I don’t know, but the name has a mysterious, romantic air to it.

Located in the chic northern part of the Marais, Le Marche des Enfants Rouges is a compact indoor market with a small iron-gate entrance that’s easy to miss if you aren’t looking for it. I arrived in the late afternoon and was starving for lunch. The nice thing about the market is that many of the stands sell fresh prepared food that you can eat on tables with cheerful plastic tablecloths spread out through the market. The heavenly aroma from an Asian food stand seduced me and I chowed down on a delicious dish of Asian–style chicken nuggets with seaweed salad.

The market was quiet as I walked around and smelled the bouquets of vibrant flowers, marveled at the wide selection of obscure wines, admired the gorgeous bounty of organic pumpkins, tomatoes, cauliflower, and other richly colored fruits and vegetables, and savored the treasures of a stand with fresh pasta,
Italian olives and extra virgin olive oil. Some of the other stands had a great selection of fresh seafood, meat and charcuterie, and French & imported cheeses.

I was just about to start filling my basket so I could whip up a delicious dinner but darn!, I already had dinner reservations.

Le Marche des Enfants Rouges
39 rue de Bretagne
Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday:  8:30-1PM and 4PM-7: 30PM
Friday, Saturday- 8h30AM-1PM and 4PM-8PM
Sunday: 8:30AM–2PM
Metro: Filles- Calvaire or Temple

Comments

[Stu "El Inglés" Harris]

R. de Bretagne....OH MIAMMM!!!! That's where that astoudingly good cous-cous restaurant, Chez Omar, is.

[joy]

I have had Paris fresh veggies and fruit and the fruit especially are some of the most delicious I have ever tasted.

Nice flower photo .. . are they real?

[shelli]

And the flower seller's prices are incredibly reasonable...they're very pretty, aren't they?

I had resisted buying flowers for several days because they were just too expensive and finally found le marché.

[L'Amerloque]

Hello !

The market has only belonged to the city since 1912, and has been a classified historical monument since 1982. It was closed for six years for renovations in the 1990s. They were quite expensive. (grin)

Best,
L'Amerloque

[hagar]

The Asian food stall you mentioned is called Taeko and serves Japanese food. I also had the fried chicken nuggets with seaweed salad and it was pretty good! Too bad the portions are a little on the small side...

[Barbara Ritchie]

I lived in Paris for a year in 1970-71 and shopped at at the Marche aux Enfants Rouge. I had no idea at the time that that was its name, I only knew it was the local market, since I lived right around the corner on rue des Archives. I spoke not a word of French, although I was taking language classes, and no one would wait on me if I spoke English, so at first, I was forced to just point to various objects! It was quite humiliating! Then I began to speak rather broken French and I knew the tradeswomen (it was always the women) gave me enormous grief, and of course, always in French and always behind my back (not really, it was always right in front of my face!) I finally managed to speak French sufficiently well that I was waited on. still with a haughty attitude, but waited on without verbal harrassment. Shopping for food became an olympic sport on rue des Archives! One of my favorite memories was the mushroom and shallot lady, who wore traditional work clothes, very sturdy black shoes with wool socks,and over her dress a white apron. Her wares were always displayed about waist high in a wooden tray, held in place by a strap that went around her neck. But dare not to touch anything in the wooden tray! Oh no, hands should not come near the champignon de Paris, the most glorious, beautiful, perfectly blemish-free, large white mushrooms I have ever seen in my life and have never seen since. She also sold ready made little cheesecloth bags of bouquet garni, ready for the stew pot, with all fresh ingredients. So many bittersweet memories of a life so long ago and of a market whose name I only learned of today. Thank you for bringing back so many vivid memories.

[Kris Burbank]

Am headed to Paris next month with my family, including 13 year old son in a wheelchair. Is the marche des Enfants Rouges accessible to non-ambulatory people? Sounds fabulous.

[Daryl]

Over via Virginia's blog .. my cousin Herb Fogel spent every summer in Paris after he attended the Sorbonne (the rest of the year taught French at LIU here in NY), you look about his age (sadly he passed a few years ago) perhaps you knew him.

[Kiki]

ditto (Virginia!!) - never mind the marché, it's YOUR DELICIOUS DESCRIPTION that had me in hunger bangs and in need of a notepad to (mentally) copy your rich and wonderful prose.... BRAVO
I live outside of Paris (some 30km SW) but come twice per week into 'town' - however have never time to visit all those lovely places! Do the TOURISTY trips with our many invitees and just visit the Sunday market in the 11th arr - very lively and interesting prices, lovely flowers too.... :)

[Philippa]

Did you notice the little jardin partage (shared garden) on the side street near the Enfants Rouges market? I love stumbling across these little pockets of growing veggies and herbs here and there in the city.

Parisian Fields
http://parisianfields.wordpress.com/2010/08/06/a-tomato-grows-in-bercy/

[brent cartner]

I am about to spend a long weekend in Paris from the 7th jan and have been reading some of your suggestions.This will be my first time staying on the Rive droit so i will check out the marais.Im now subscribed to your musings so will hopefully be surprised as well into the future.