Les Halles of Narbonne

"The heart of the city, all the soul of the beautiful Mediterranean between stalls of the Aude flavors and laughing counters: The Halles de Narbonne, a visit is a must!" Discover Carcassonne

The quote is from the Aude tourist people - the Aude being the Département that we are in at the moment and it is a rather quaint translation from their French. Narbonne is blessed with an indoor market - a bit like Victoria Market but not. Indeed it made me think how lucky we are to have The Queen Victoria Market and the other markets too - South Melbourne, Prahran, Preston, Camberwell, Footscray, Box Hill. This market here in Narbonne is housed in a very fine building and has lots of interesting stuff inside it, but really it can't compare with our own markets back in Melbourne - and of course the other cities of Australia too. The Narbonne market is a major tourist attraction in the south - and truth to tell I cannot think of any other French city down in the south with one - though I am probably very very wrong on that. But still we should be proud of what we have. For secretly I think it is better.

So how did Narbonne differ? Well it is smaller - much smaller. Where the Queen Vic has separate halls for fish and meat and delicatessen and several sheds of fruit and vegetables, everything here was in the one place. So there was a small corner for fish, and the rest was sort of scattered all over the place. I suspect it was not, like the Queen Vic, a cheap place to buy food - I suspect it was pricey. But the produce was certainly very different. There was lots of pre cooked food - like the stall full of north African food, the chicken rotisseries with their potatoes as well (I really wanted to photograph these, but the queues in front were too thick). Then there were prepared meals like cassoulet in jars, and baked delicacies as well. The cheese was probably to die for, especially if you like goat's cheese and the meat was displayed in great slabs - I guess you asked for a bit off the slab. And scattered here and there were little bars, and even a restaurant that spilled out on to the pavement outside.

It's interesting to wonder whether it exists for the tourists or the locals. But actually most of the customers seemed to be French.

It was very crowded. But then it was market day - all along the canal were a myriad of stalls selling just about everything from tourist tat to household goods and the inevitable spinners. So here are a few photos that I hope give you a bit of an idea.