I mentioned this in my previous post but for introduction sake I'll say it again, Beaune was our next destination during my sister's vacation in France. It was a perfect spot for a #marketfriday post hosted by @dswigle.
We stopped there on our drive home from Chamonix. The city was almost a perfect half way point along our route and it was on my list of places to see in the country, so we took the opportunity to make a small detour along the way.
We parked in a large parking lot just outside the old town and then headed in to the main city center. The parking lot was free too, which was a welcomed surprise. That sort of luck is hard to come by this day in age.
Within the old town was a huge market taking place with food in one section and flea market style antiques and wares in another. My sister did a better job taking photos that day, so most of the pictures are courtesy of her.
My biggest regret about our visit was not purchasing any truffles - the fungi variety not the chocolate ones. One of the stalls was selling fresh summer truffles and for some stupid reason I didn't think to buy any of the little black nuggets of deliciousness.
I had bought a fresh one the previous year in Sarlat and it had lasted me about a week. I had loved putting it on pasta and bread and eggs in the morning. I basically ate it with every meal each day until it was gone. Just shredded some on onto whatever I was eating. Why I didn't think to buy one this day is beyond me. Summer Truffles are expensive but they aren't unreasonable by any means, especially if you only buy them on occasion. They were selling decent sized ones starting at 11.00 euro, but of course they went up from there depending on the size. None were unreasonably priced though. I didn't take any photos of the stall either, but that's not surprising. I almost never take pictures in markets, hence why all of the photos are from my sister. They actually sell truffles in the nicer grocery store in our city, but unlike the golf ball sized ones at the market, these ones are the size of a large marble (about 1/4 to 1/3rd the size of the market ones) and they aren't fresh but pickled in some sort of brine. I doubt they taste the same and they are two to three times the price as well. Needless to say I've never bought any and really dont see the point in doing so.
Ooo looks at all the garlic! Imagine all of the delicious meals you could make with all of that (or all of the vampire's that you could kill).
Hey, what do you know, it looks like I did take a photo in the market that day (below). Too bad is was almost the same as the previous ones.
There were lots of shallots and onions in there and an assortment of olives as well. That was my kind of stall.
There was a dried fruit and nuts stand,
and also a canned jam stall,
and a flower booth. The market had all of the things you would expect and maybe then some.
My sister got a kick out of these colorful boxer shorts. Are they still called boxers? Male underwear - whatever the name is nowadays. I like the cats with laser beam eyes myself.
Something that we didn't do was check out the Hospices de Beaune, which is a famous historic landmark of the city with a very colorful tiled roof. I had originally planned to check it out, but when we got there and saw the price and the line up to get in, we decided that we just weren't feeling it that day. I'm sure it is nice but I'm not too upset about not going in. We had a long travel day and at least 4 more hours of driving ahead of us, so after stopping for a coffee and an ice cream and checking out the market we headed back to our car to get back on the road.
