There’s little chance you could starve on market days in Place Broglie in Strasbourg: There’s too much food of so many kinds, whether raw to take home and cook or prepared and ready to eat on a nearby bench.
And because Strasbourg itself is a mix of so many cultures and one of the capitals of Europe, there’s quite a variety as well.
Place Broglie, where the market is held, isn’t really a ‘place’ in the usual sense; it’s a wide boulevard along the paved market area, which is about four blocks long. Along the side are important buildings: City Hall, the Prefect’s Palace, the Bank of France, that kind. At the far end, the Opera House.
If I weren’t so busy drooling over the food and flowers, I’d take a moment for some of the non-market stories. Where the Bank of France is once stood the home of Philippe-Frederic de Dietrich (those half-breed names pop up here); In 1792 he asked a friend, Claude Rouget de l’Isle to write a war song for the coming Napoleonic conflict with Germany. He did, and sang it for the first time there; despite its name, Strasbourg is the home of the Marseillaise.
Further down, in front of the Opera, there’s a statue honoring General Leclerc, erected in 1951 on the seventh anniversary of his leading French forces in the liberation of Strasbourg. That’s when Place Broglie got its name back; under the Nazis it was Adolf-Hitler-Platz, and the Rouget de l’Isle statue was melted down. After the war it was recast from original molds.
But that’s a distraction from the food, and my reason for being in the market early last September. There are three reasons, actually. First, I love good markets. Second, on my last trip to Strasbourg, in 2017, I fell in love with mirabelles, grown locally, only in Lorraine. They are a special variety of yellow plum, the size of a large cherry. The flavor is sweetly plummy with a little tang. And they’re addictive. And September is the last month for the harvest.
Suffice it to say, I ate my fill; they don’t travel well and you’re unlikely to find them anywhere more than a day away from the source, although Bonne Maman does have Mirabelle preserves. But it’s just not the same.
And here’s reason number three, above. There are several rotisserie vans at the market, but Angelique is the best. Chicken, rabbit, pork, all roasted to a beautiful turn. But what I went for is a sinful guilty pleasure. Potatoes cut in small chunks and dropped into the bottom of the rotisserie, being dripped on by the roasting chickens all day, turning brown and crusty and wonderful. Sorry, next trip I’ll share a picture; I was so greedy I forgot to take a shot before I ate them.
The sign with these sausages (only the top is visible, there are more lines) is typical Strasbourg: French and German names for many things in a city whose food leans more east and whose language leans more west, and where many people still speak Alsatian dialects. Street signs are bilingual: French and Alsatian.
The region’s fruit also goes into preserves, ciders and juices; mirabelle is among the jam choices at the top. The middle rack, where plum and pear and berry juices are often mixed with apple juice also has a mirabelle choice. And at the honey stand, you can pick from an incredible variety of honey produced by bees specializing in one flower or another.
There’s also a lot of fresh fruit in the market besides the mirabelles. The small local strawberries were incredibly sweet, and incredibly easy to eat a whole basket of them.
If you were wondering where all the power comes from for those stands and vans, look no further than here… Strategically placed around the marketplace and not even noticeable when not in use.
Gorgeous local vegetables, are, of course a big thing here.
Mushrooms from across the border in Germany, local chives and cauliflower.
Baked goods galore, but take a close look. Some of those dots are raisins and chocolate, but some are very busy bees and bugs attracted to the sugary coat.
And did you say tomatoes? As wide a variety as you’ll find anywhere; ‘heirloom’ tomatoes are having as big a vogue as in U.S. farmers’ markets.
The market is a twice-a-week regular. The city has a variety of other food markets in other neighborhoods, but this is the big one. Two other markets use the place as well. Six or seven weekends a year, the space is taken over by an antique and crafts market. Then, in late November and December, it’s the home of Strasbourg’s main Christkindlmarik or Christmas market. The ‘marik’ is an Alsatian survival.
All in all, it’s clear to me as I write this, that Strasbourg is back on my ‘must visit’ list… see you at the Market!
