Saturday morning at Capucins

There’s a little place in Bordeaux not too far from Place de la Victoire, called Marché des Capucins. Locals like to come here as an alternative to the supermarket, because it offers a variety of fresh goodies at a cheaper price. Produce, meat, seafood, dairy products, pastry, flowers, wine…you name it!

I don’t come here as often as I should, but when I still had Mr.Nikon last year, I took him to Capucins for a visit. It wasn’t so much the prospect of buying anything as the sheer number of vendors row after row, the variety of goods on sale, and the vivid spectrum of (almost kaleidoscopic) colours that could be seen from end to end that attracted me to drop by.

Oh, and if I remember correctly, I had Mr.LS-san as my company. What better place to take a friend going to Bordeaux for the first time than its characteristic morning market?

We start out in the Saint-Michel district (which I had partly written about here) where another big outdoor market is taking place. Here you can find lots of vendors selling clothing and random accessories of all sorts.

Large handbags/purses/baskets on sale near Saint-Michel. Maybe the idea is to get one of these, then head directly to Capucins for grocery shopping. Very appropriate!

We finally enter Capucins and voilà…the world of fresh produce awaits us, with more types of vegetables than I can name. Here begins our colourful tour around the market 😉

Moving on, we have our tomatoes, radishes, and eggplants. I’m not a fan of eggplants. Actually, I’ve abhorred them since my childhood, and I don’t even know why myself. Just don’t offer me anything related to eggplants if you still want to be my friend.

More veggies…

These small pumpkins are so cute! They are so homogeneously orange that it seems like someone painted them all over. In retrospect, it would have been fun to buy a few of these for Halloween. Perhaps this year!

Broccoflowers are the ultimate God of fractals. Their patterns are so beautiful and dazzling that I feel like I could get hypnotised just by staring at them for a long time. I’ve never eaten a broccoflower yet, though. I love broccoli – probably my favourite vegetable – and I love cauliflower, but somehow I am slightly skeptical about the hybrid of the two…hmmmmm, it certainly leads me to wonder!

Aha, seafood! How I love you! You didn’t think I’d miss the seafood section, did you? The shrimps are gigantic, and boy, they look amazingly delicious as well!

What are YOU lookin’ at? Some people would probably find this disturbing. I know at least one friend of mine who would turn away directly at the sight (and smell) of these fish 😦

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAB! They remind me of the crab dinners that I used to have all the time at home, when it was crab season. My mom would steam them with ginger and green onions and mmmmmmmmm, so good! These ones were huge though, and they’re already cooked…tempting for one who doesn’t know how to prepare crab!

We leave the seafood section and head to a more fragrant area with flowers and plants. Nothing beats the beauty and elegance of a gentle rose in bloom 😉 Where is your Little Prince, oh dear rose?

As we continued down the aisle, we stumbled upon a booth selling Chinese-style charcuterie. That’s gotta be roasted duck (or goose, I can’t tell) on the right, but is that cha siu on the left?

Till this day I still wonder why the sign says “GOING”. As far as I know, a pear is une poire in French, and I could find nothing that remotely related “going” to “pear”. Unless that really says “6oing”…or “60ing”…or something. If somebody knows, please let me know!

We end this entry with some desserts – sweet, colourful macarons in the back and of course, Bordeaux’s very own speciality, the canelé! I still can’t stand the incredible sweetness of macarons; after one, I feel like I’ve eaten 5 spoonfuls of sugar. The canelé, however, I’ve grown to love. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside…that’s how I like it!

À plus tard, mes chers amis 😉