Place d'Aligre Market

From Paris Hotels Reviews

Place d'Aligre Market

Just to the outh of the rue du Faubourg-St-Antoine is the place d'Aligre market (Mº Ledru-Rollin), a lively, raucous affair, held every morning except Monday, and particularly aminamted on Saturdays and Sundays. The square itself is given over the clothes and bric-a-brac stalls, selling anything from old gramophone players to odd bits of crockery. There's also a covered food market with the usual line-up of fromagerics and charcuteries, plus more unusual stalls such as Sur les Quais, selling numerous varieties of olive oil. It's along the adjoining rue d'Aligre, however, where the market really comes to life, the vendors, many of Algerian origin, doing a frenetic trade in fruit and veg. As the market winds down, you could follow the locals to the old-fashioned Le Baron Rouge wine bar for a glass of wine and sancisson, or drink in the North African atmosphere at the La Ruche a Miel café at 19 rue d'Aligre and order some mint tea with sticky cakes. Before leaving the area it's also worth taking a look at the old-style boulangerie on the corner of rues Charenton and Emilio-Castelar, with its beautiful painted glass panels, the queue of shoppers outside testifying to the excellence of its bread and pâtisseries.