Le Marche Aligre

As I mentioned, I spent the last week living near the Bastille with an older English woman. The Bastille is a pretty lively area full of shops, restaurants and a variety of people. While the actual Bastille of Revoultion fame was demolished in the 1800s (I believe under Napoleon...) there is a large "place" in its former place and it serves as the round about for about 5 large avenues. Anyway, I was living on one of those Avenues called the Blvd. Faubourg - Saint Antoine and it just so happened that the apartment was about a block away from the cheapest farmers' market in Paris. Supposedly, hundreds of years ago, a church/mission/convent (something religious) needed money and decided to sell off a piece of their land to local merchants. However, they sold it on the condition that the merchants charge as little as possible for their goods, and thus the market is still the cheapest in Paris, while maintaining very good quality.

As you all know, I love food and love to cook, so a farmer's market right outside my door was amazing. Every morning I would walk through the stands and buy some fruits and vegetables for my breakfast and lunch - usually coming away with something like 2 peaches, 2 bananas, cherry tomatoes, a round of goat chesse, a croissant and a demi-baguette for less than 5 euros! Despite living farther away now, I plan to go during the weekends and stock up on fresh fruit for the week, because the prices really can't be beat.