![](https://culinarytravelsinfrance.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/0ce87-market.jpg?w=320&h=240)
My goal is to try and visit as many different markets as I can over a period of time. This gives me an opportunity to see what’s on the market in terms of fresh vegetables, fish, cuts of meat, charcuterie, fruit etc. I call this gastronomic intelligence and I find each market has a different gastronomic intelligence quotient (GIQ) as it’s more commonly known in the culinary industry research business. It’s not easy work but somebody has to do it. You have to be on your toes every second lest you miss some nuanced comments on a particular cheese or cut of beef from one of the stall managers. Usually it’s madame. So when madame at the charcuterie counter suggests a particular Pâté de Campagne, I usually heed the advice.
So I try to do this research on a weekly basis and last week, for example, I was at the Marché Alésia in the 13ème arrondissement. Overall I thought it was quite a good market, plenty of interesting selections so I gave it good marks and will most likely return. Try it and tell me what you think. Today my trip takes me a little longer because I’m going to the Marché la Tourelle in Saint-Mandé aka the market in Saint-Mandé. Don’t rush to look for it in your Paris arrondissement or Paris City guide because you won’t find it. Though not terribly far from Paris, the town Saint-Mandé is situated just to the east of Paris and is in the Département du Val de Marne, Ile-de-France. It’s right over the 12th Arrondissement (past Bastille where you can stop a see a few friends) and just over the Paris city line. If your curious and you do decide to go then just when you exit the Saint-Mandé métro stop, the market is literally right there at the Place Gallieni and the Avenue de Paris. Check out the town while you there as well. There is a boulangerie just down the street from the market thats worth a look-see and a few choice purchases.
True to form, this market like many others always has a wonderful selection of fresh foods, cheeses, rotisserie, olives and more. In fact, I purchased a nice variety of olives to have with my Apéro later in the not too distant future, like this evening.
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I made a special stop at the cheese counter and marveled at the selection mentally jotting down a few cheeses that I did not immediately recognize such as the Pélardon which is a round soft-ripened cheese covered in a white mold from the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It turns out to be a wonderful creamy goat cheese. That’s something that might show up on a future menu.