Marché des Lices

There is an area of Rennes called Les Lices, meaning "lists", or something.  Although if you put lices  into google translate, you get "bitches".  I don't know what that's about, because to my knowledge salope meant bitch.  Every Saturday in Les Lices there is La Marché des Lices, where they remove all the cars from the street and open up these two big buildings, which as far as I can tell, are only used this one time during the week.  Apparently, La Marché des Lices is the third-largest open-air market in France.  That means lots of stuff to see, taste, and take pictures of.

This Saturday I went with Kathryn, who hails from North Texas-- Plano specifically.  The Marché has a wide variety of foodstuffs to offer, including fresh produce, meat, cheeses, and very fresh seafood.  There is also a section with live plants and freshly cut flowers.

flower stand

The Marché is everything I ever hoped a French open-air market would be.  We got there at about 10 am, and the market got more and more crowded as the morning turned into afternoon.  The produce is probably the biggest part of the entire market, sprawling throughout a normal city street and spilling into a smaller, second lower level.

 

Everything you see here is the produce part of the market- this was when it got crowded around 12 pm.  There's still more that is behind me in this picture.   Those two buildings are also part of the market.

There was a pretty good variety of vegetables- a lot of lettuce, green peppers, leeks, and the like.  There was even a wonderful stand that was entirely devoted to garlic- a bunch of it coming from Mont Saint Michel, apparently.

I would say there were more vegetables than fruits, but there was really no shortage of anything.  One or two stands had samples- one had some cantaloupe pieces that were pretty good.  But when I tried some of this clementine, I had to buy some.  I think clementines are pretty popular here, and with good reason.  They come from Spain, and they are delicious.

I bought half a kilo, and I ended up eating all of them later that afternoon.
The second lower level that the produce market overflows into also has the two buildings and the seafood market.  The seafood market is crazy- the stuff there is local, and super fresh.  In the fact that maybe half the stock there is still alive.  All the fish are dead, sure, but all the crabs and lobsters you see are lively and flopping around.  It makes me a bit sad, but it sure is entertaining.  I wanted to get some pictures or video or something, but at this point I though my camera was completely out of battery (it ended up turning on for a brief period later).  Let me just say two things: the French, at least in Brittany, LOVE mussels; and live shrimp in a basket is one of the most terrifying things I've ever seen.  To apologize for my lack of pictures, here is a guy playing an accordian:

One of the two buildings houses all the butchers/delicatessens and cheese guys (I don't know if there's a specific title for that... it's probably 'fromagier' or something).  This building was pretty cold.  I couldn't tell if it was the weather, a refrigerated building, or just the cold coming off the display cases.  Anyways, the variety of French cheese would make your head spin.

Of course, one of the greatest things about being in a exotic environment is that what is passé locally is exciting and disgusting to foreigners like myself.  The French are renowned for eating the gross parts of animals like brains and tongues.  I was expecting this to be another cliché about the French that I would be disappointed by, but fortunately this was not the case.

WARNING: GRAPHIC AND AWESOME

cow tongues and calves' brains

hooves and what we think are piles of fat

Originally when we walked through the first time, we saw a pile of meat that looked unidentifiable.  Upon closer inspection, it was the cross section of a calf head.  This was gross, and radical.  This was when my camera pooped out the first time, and I was really disappointed.  Later, when it started working again, I insisted on going back to get a picture of the half a head.  However, by the time we returned someone had I guess bought half of the half a head.  The reason for this I cannot guess, but here is what was left.

Probably the grossest thing they have in the meat pavilion are all the dead rabbits.  Luckily for you, dear reader, the picture I got wasn't of one of the spread-eagled vivisected ones.

still gross, though

The second building is kind of like an enormous dry goods store.  They have a lot of baked goods (including lots of delicious breads) and things like honey, candies, and jam.  Kathryn and I each had a sample of a really tasty spice cake.  I didn't take any specific pictures, but here's a picture of what the interior looks like.

near the jam table

I think it would be really cool to do your weekly shopping here, as a lot of the people here do.  You can see hordes of ladies and even one or two gents with their roller grocery bags that are all the rage here.  Let me just warn you, they are RUTHLESS with those things.  I got battered by a couple in the hustle and bustle.
Probably my favorite part of the Marché are all the street food vendors.  Everything looks so delicious and appetizing, it really tried my cheapness.  Especially when the Asian lady gave us samples of some pork spring rolls.  I'm going to have to go back another Saturday and buy out her entire tent.

a paella lady

The Marché des Lices is literally one minute from Place Saint Anne, where there are always these book tables set out.  I was able to finally find a copy of Le Petit Prince for only 3€(still haven't read it though).  One other thing I've noticed about France: they love comics here.  Well, at least they have them nearly everywhere, and it's mostly independent stuff.  You can always find superhero comics (including one fantastic Spiderman pop-out book I found) but most of them are fiction, history, and, my favorite, slice-of-life comics.  It's exciting to be able to stumble upon a legit comic book store once in a while.

 life is beautiful

After putzing around Place Saint Anne, we were pretty hungry.  Kathryn let me chose where we ate, and I picked this kebab place I'd seen a couple times while walking around.  Let me just say, GOOD CHOICE.  I got a kebab panini, which is kebab meat, emmentel, and white sauce on grilled bread.

so good

The way real kebab works is that a giant hunk of meat (I think it's a cow leg or something) slowly rotates on a spit in front of a heating element, and you shave the meat off.  Here you can see the guy doing just that:

The kebab place is run by some friendly Turkish (I think) dudes.  If you ever happen upon a kebab place, GO IN.  EAT EVERYTHING.  It's a little reminiscent of gyro, only better.

So this was my super cool Saturday morning preceding the Peter, Bjorn, and John concert, which will get its very own post, as I took TONS of video.  In summary, the concept of the open-air market is a definitive cultural advantage the French have on us.  Their bureaucracy may be infuriating, and their executive politics resembling daytime television (seriously, check out that Sarkozy family drama; it's crazy), but the Marché des Lices is definitely something I'll visit more than once.