Despite 5 or 6 trips to this area every year for the past 2 decades, I have never visited Questembert – until today! Questemberts claim to fame is that it has one of, if not the, oldest covered markets (Les Halles) in France, dating from 1552. It has been a listed Historic Monument since 1922 and was restored in 1997, and still plays host to markets, fairs, bric-a-brac and other events.
We visited on a Saturday afternoon, and so it was incredibly quiet and pretty much deserted. A few shops and that’s it. I’m sure it’s a more pleasant place when it isn’t February, when the sun is shining, and when the market is in town, but we didn’t stay long preferring to take a quick trip over to Rochefort-en-Terre for a crepe.
Martin Jarvis is a professional web developer with a passion for all things "France" - including his lovely wife Nadine! With a french wife, a house on the border of Brittany and the Pays de la Loire, an aunt in Paris, his wifes family in Bordeaux, and a dear friend on the Cote d'Azur, Martin is well placed to comment on France from the point of view of an Englishman.
Hopefully, this interest in France and his experience as a developer and marketer of websites will help make this site invaluable to francophiles everywhere.
From Chris Slade:
Questembert market comes alive early on a Monday morning… The open sided hall is like a giant, upturned boat that just buzzes with activity as it has done for centuries… All of life is there, from the simple and local to the exotic and bizarre. A Mandarin family all with pigtails and block shoes provide sizzling hot Chinese food ‘to go’… There is also a Paella man who begins to cook his delicious fare whilst it is still dark; in a pan the size of a cart wheel. This adds to the atmosphere and the aroma which just ‘fits’. Of course there is a crepe van too (whover heard of a Breton market without one) for those who just want something ‘handy’ rather than to take home for lunch or supper. And, of course there are fish, moules, huitres meat, charcuterie, fruit and vegetables abound, as well as livestock. Chickens, ducks, geese (their necks stick up high out of the wicker baskets that hold them)… rabbits; I wasn’t sure they were for the pot or as pets, pigs, sheep, donkeys and cattle.
And, all around the periferique are cafés, bars and restaurants coralling the general hub-bub.
It really is a magical experience. And, having been caught up on this memory – I can’t wait to go again. It was quite a long round trip from our house in Brittany – and I wouldn’t as easily just drop everything to travel 65 miles in England to go to a market… in Brittany it just feels right.