My favorite market in Rennes, and the only thing I look forward to on Saturdays! This market…read moresprawls across the city center, and because it's so close to the Sainte Anne metro station, it makes it all the more appealing to me! There are hundreds of vendors selling all sorts of products: flowers, fresh produce, meats, seafood, baked goods, sweets, cheeses, and dairy products, as well as food trucks and stands. All the prices are relatively similar, but there are a few stalls that sell their produce for dirt-cheap prices. The produce is VERY fresh, so you should consider buying only what you can eat within the next few days. I particularly love the baked goods section of the market, located inside the covered buildings, because of the wide variety. I get my favorite mini kouign amann from here, as well as beautifully baked brioche loaves. No one has told me a definitive hours of operations, but to my understanding they're open from at least 9am-1pm, but go as early as possible, because with each passing moment, it gets busier and busier, until you're drowning in a crowd of people.

I travelled up from Nantes to have a look round the city in general and check out this market in…read moreparticular. One of the biggest and most famous in France, Le Marché des Lices is pretty great! There must be several hundred stalls selling any food you could possibly want: fresh fruit and veg, bread, cakes, meats (cooked and raw), honey, and much more. If I lived closer I would have dived in and grabbed some of the delicious looking fresh (and often still alive) seafood, but I don't reckon the smells would have been too friendly after putting them in my bag and walking round all day in the glorious spring sun. Round the corner there is also a large flower market, but for me, it was all about the food. The fruit and veg are considerably cheaper than the fare I can find in Nantes, and the quality is excellent. Keep an eye out for the jam stalls - it will probably take an age testing out the dozens and dozens of delicious jams but that's half the fun isn't it. I bagged a kiwi and pomelo confiture with a really unique taste and I can't wait to eat it with fresh bread. Many of the vendors speak pretty good English although I was able to get by my average French. Like most markets in France it shuts at 13:30 so if you want to take your time browsing try to get down earlier rather than later. The same can be said about buying lunch there. There are maybe two dozen trailers selling lunch fare in between the two covered halls, and when I queued up at 12:30 to get un galette de saucisse (a sausage wrapped in a buckwheat crêpe - a local favourite), I had to wait for a good 20-25 minutes. Sure it was quite nice, but trying to eat this at the same time as hurriedly buying pink garlic and saucisson de canard. You can probably grab similar fare throughout the city with much less waiting. All in all however, a really great place to look round and buy some choice produce.