North Shore Views

Wilmette’s French Market

On Saturday mornings throughout the summer, a trip to Wilmette’s Metra parking lot will transport you to old world France, where you can stroll through a  Parisian-style open air market and shop for fresh produce, bread and other good stuff.

I always wondered why it’s called a French Market instead of a farmer’s market.  That’s the great thing about writing a blog. You learn a lot of stuff you may not have known about before.  The big difference  is that the French Market has breads & baked goods, meats, cheeses, potted plants, kettle-corn,  pickles, jewelry, scarves, bags and handicrafts, in addition to the fruits and vegetables you would find at an ordinary farmer’s market. Also, instead of separate booths, all of the vendors are under one long red, white and blue awning. Our market  even features live music in the form of a New Trier student who plays the violin for shoppers’ listening pleasure and, of course, tips.

The concept is borrowed from the open air markets in Europe, where people shop for their daily consumables. It was brought to this country by Bensidoun, a French company that manages open air markets in and around Paris and now in several towns and cities in the U.S.

The market is open every Saturday from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm from May 1st through the end of October. Most of the produce and other food items are grown or produced locally (or regionally).

Tags: French Market

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 6:13 am and is filed under Living here, Local gems, Things to do, Wilmette. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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