Salon de l'Agriculture

I'm so lucky to live in a place that takes so much pride in their food products. There are countless regional specialties, all of them traditional products rooted deeply in the earth (or the sea) of that certain place.

As you wander around markets and groceries around France, you notice products with this label:

Every year at the Salon de l'Agriculture, more than 17,000 food products are judged, and a select few in each category are awarded a medal from the all-important Concours Général Agricole. Despite taste being completely subjective, the judges are usually spot-on with their awards and you can be pretty sure you are getting a superior product.

I have been looking forward to the Salon de l'Agriculture for months now. Not only do I love wandering around the livestock barns, but I really had no idea how much good food I was about to expérience.

Like artisanal limousin sausage and onion sandwich. J' heart sandwich!

The convention center at Porte du Versailles is enormous, and the fair took up several buildings. The food floors were nothing short of one of the Wonders of the World. Each region of France had their own area, and great fun was to be had darting between all the neighborhoods.

It was a fantastic way to sample a ton of really interesting good food, and meet the people who actually make them.

A beautiful wall of honey, from a Producer in Bourgeone, a region I have yet to really explore:

I couldn't make it through without stopping at a couple oyster bars. Oh, they were good.

There were lots of wine, Champagne, cider, cognac and beer vendors as well. People seemed to be doing more than just tasting- a lot of people were pretty jovial early on in the day.

Mmmm... saucisson cones...

The french love their hams and saucisson. It seemed like the lion's share of vendors seemed to deal with preserved meats, and not just beef or pork. Donkey, lamb, horse, rabbit, wild boar and all sorts of wild game make appearances.

It was delightful. All of it, except for the crowds, which got kind of pushy and full of small children and baby buggys at times. I had a fantastic Kouign Amann at one of the Bretton stands, and there was just so much cheese from small producers that we're not lucky enough to get in Paris. The fair is going on until 3 March, so go if you can. The Metro ticket to Porte de Versailles and the 13 Euro price tag at the gate is a lot cheaper than a tour de France to try and track down all these producers on their own.

There were lots of other really amazing things to see as well, and I'm going back for round two at some point. I'll have more posts about this event soon!

Union Square

Walking around Union Square.

It seems like most of my life in New York was centered around this area. Traditionally, this is where downtown ends and uptown begins. I almost always lived below Union Square, but worked above it, and it seemed to be the hub of my social life for a good long time. As soon as I walked into the Greenmarket and saw all the thoughtful, brooding artesian pickle makers and the snarky rooftop honey producers, I felt like I was back with my people.

Winesaps!

We get so many varieties of apples in France, and winesaps are not one of them as far as I can tell. I happily munched my way through a whole bag of them while I was stateside.

Every November, a holiday vendor village gets set up in the square where the skateboarders usually are showing their boxers shorts to the world.

I sniffed out some good food pretty quickly. I seem to have a knack for that.

The waffels at Waffles and Dingles put anything I've ever had in Belgium to shame.

And....

Pork buns! In Paris, they call them "brioche" and I haven't had one that didn't taste like porky hockey pucks yet. Here, even at a street vendor, they are pillowy and soft, with sweet BBQ pork oozing warm in the center. It's enough to make me cry.

As soon as the sun starts to set (which is thankfully not too much of wait in winter) I headed over to my favorite local place, Old Town Bar.

They make a generous cocktail, and they make the gimlets with gin, as they should be.

As good excuse as any to meet up with the multi-talented Silent James.

Bayeux Market

When we were Bayeux, we stayed at a lovely little inn called Sainte Croix.

Very cute place. I would hesitate to call it Victorian in style (I don't know what they called that frilly and modest period in France).

It sat right on a giant tree-lined parking lot, which served as kind of a town square, where the weekly market takes place.

We found out quickly that they enjoy their sweets in Normandy. Breakfast was lovely and good, but sorely lacking protein. I knew we were in trouble when baskets of bread, croissants, slices of brioche and jam were laid in front of us. Later came the pot du caramel and malty sweet waffels. Enough already! I need an egg! I don't eat that much sugar and carbs in a week, never mind at the breakfast table. Still...it was tasty.

The market had a lot to offer. We enjoyed sampling and chatting to the cider and calvados producer who sent us home with a crate of his goods. Being somewhat in the countryside, they sold livestock!

There was a vendor who sold tiny little songbirds.

There was also the typical food and produce vendors.

The locals line up at the Chevaline stand. You can't usually buy horse steaks from a regular butcher, but they have specialty butchers that are exclusively dealing out Trigger and Flicka.

Afterwards, a nice walk around the town to try to re-establish healthy blood sugar levels.