Markets
Make sure you get to the town’s charming main market, which happens every single Thursday (8am-1pm) come rain or shine, whatever the time of year.
**There is a list at the bottom of the page listing the daily food markets within the region, should you not be visiting us on a Thursday, Saturday or Sunday.
A Guide to Chinon’s Thursday Market
Fortify yourself with a coffee and a croissant at Le Bistrot du Marché (right next door to Hotel Plantagenêt) with its outside tables and good view of the hustle and bustle. Chinon’s market has a wealth of predominantly local produce - regardless of the time of year - and it grows slowly over the summer months, when you can sometimes also spot the odd stall selling brightly coloured pottery from Provence.
There are several regular linen stalls, of varying quality, that are sometimes worth a look, as well as a man selling pashminas (note, not the same as the cotton scarf stall). Rummage and be rewarded! For cheese, I always hunt out the van from Rodolphe Le Meunier who is a permanent fixture in Les Halles de Tours (a buzzing, indoor food market in our nearest big city: Tours) but on Thursdays only, she comes to Chinon’s market.
For lunch, or a post-market glass of wine, we love Hotel de La Treille where you can sit outside under a vine trellis. It comes alive on market day. Booking recommended.
Chinon’s Saturday & Sunday Markets
Chinon also has a very small Saturday Morning Market just outside the Marie/Café des Arts as well as a slightly larger Sunday Market (also just by the Marie) selling seafood, cheese, fruit and veg (open 9am-1pm). There is usually a great atmosphere in town; go local and have a coffee on the square before a plate of oysters with a glass of chilled white at the open-air oyster stall manned by the boys in stripes. If they’re not there, slip down a side street and replicate their menu at Le XV (15 Rue Rabelais) who serve €8 platters of oysters with local white wine.
Note that on Sundays, the focus is on the heart of the town. L’Eclerc, (see SUPERMARKETS) and all the other shops outside the centre, are shut; they re-open on Monday. However, the small, in-town Carrefour, the butchers, the bakers and so on, all remain open on Sunday until around 1pm.
As a general rule, anything that is open on a Sunday, will be closed on a Monday, and visa versa.
Don’t forget that most independent shops will shut for lunch - as well as some chains too (timings vary from shop-to-shop, but things usually close 12.30pm-2pm, daily).
Markets around the region….
