Portraits of Belleville: The Marché

Every Tuesday and Friday morning, the extra-wide median of the Boulevard de Belleville welcomes a raucous, teeming market. The two rows of stalls - and the crush of shoppers packed in between them - extend as far as the eye can see.

Your body is pressed on all sides as you move at a snail's pace, but at least you have plenty of time to ogle the incredible quantity of foods, fabrics, and flowers.


Your ears are assailed by the cries of marchands hawking their wares. And then your ears are soothed by the pleasant songs many of the marchands sing as an alternative technique to entice customers.

Still, in the midst of this overwhelming experience, it's surprisingly easy to find a moment of calm and comfort. All it takes is one friendly face. 

Stock Market Market

Every Tuesday and Friday that I spend at the BN's Département de la musique, I'm treated to this delicious sight:

I call it "delicious" in part because the fruit, veggies, meats, cheese, and ready-to-eat goodies at this farmers' market always look so amazing, but also because there's something cosmically satisfying in this juxtaposition of a financial stock market and the original "stock market" that we now call "farmers' market."

Unfortunately, it looks like no one's buying - outside or inside.

Regarding the imposing edifice behind the temporary stalls: construction began on the Bourse de Paris or Palais Brongniart (after the architect) when Napoleon laid the first stone in 1808, but the place wasn't finished until 1826. You wouldn't know it just by looking at the Palais Brongniart, but it played host to a whole range of speculative and oppressive financial (mis)adventures over the course of the 19th century, including the expansion of railroads and colonial endeavors. Today this stock exchange likely continues to witness the pursuit of morally-questionable profits (how's that for populism?) as part of the NYSE Euronext system, which groups together the bourses of New York, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon, Porto, and London. Here's a view of the two markets on a different day, from a different vantage point, so you can see just how epic the building is, and so you can imagine its checkered history:

If you're interested in checking out the markets, you'll find them at Place de la Bourse, Paris 2e, with the farmers' market open Tuesdays and Fridays, 12:30 to 8:30 PM.

More Lille

We planned our trip so we'd get to spend one full day each in Lille and Bruges, but it didn't quite work out that way. Thanks to a last-minute rush to get Panda one more vaccination before she went to the kennel, we didn't arrive in Lille until Wednesday evening (instead of early afternoon), so we only had a few daylight hours on Thursday to explore. We split that time four ways:

1) We checked out the "famous" market at Wazemmes, the outdoor portion of which was similar to the Marché aux Puces in Paris, or Cowtown in New Jersey; the indoor portion of which was much like the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia (fairly swank, high-quality stuff). The building around which the Marché takes place (Lille's own, well-preserved "Les Halles") is quite nice too.

2) We visited the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, one of the premier Beaux-Arts in France (supposedly second only to Paris). Again, I was as impressed by the building housing the collection as by the collection itself. Highlights: Velasquez, Rodin, arch-arcade hallways, the modern extension behind the building (which reflects the older building beautifully; everyone wants their own glass-pyramids-at-the-Louvre kind of thing), I could go on . . .

3) We walked around the Grand Place, Place Rihour and Vieux Lille, all of which was fine, but not too distinctive. (Sometimes it seems like every city in Europe has a pedestrian-only shopping district centered around the "old" part of town (including a central square) characterized by winding, narrow streets first laid out in medieval times and recently gentrified to attract tourists like us.)

The Grand Place

Lille's Opera, just off the Grand Place

4) We ate at an amazing restaurant we stumbled upon quite randomly. It's called À La Renaissance, and the food we savored there deserves its own post. Coming soon.

We left Lille after spending almost exactly 6 hours touring the city. Clearly, we're going to need to go back, and since it's only an hour from Paris, it's possible to make a day trip out of it. Anyone want to join us?