Shopping in Southwestern France
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Cadiot-Badie
Bordeaux's greatest chocolate maker offers the gourmand a whole range of delicious specialties to take home: chocolate Bordeaux truffles flavoured with liqueur brandy and grapes, fanchonettes (flaky pastry tartlets filled with pastry cream and covered with meringue) and tourny, a ball of praline. With its crystal chandeliers and carved moulding, the shop itself, which dates from 1826, is worth a visit.
reviewed
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Marché des Capucins
A classic Bordeaux experience is a Saturday morning spent slurping oysters and white wine from one of the seafood stands to be found at Marché des Capucins. Afterwards you can peruse the stalls while shopping for the freshest ingredients to take on a picnic to one of the city’s parks. To get there, head south down cours Pasteur and once at place de la Victoire turn left onto rue Élie Gintrec.
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Debotte Gautier
When Jules Verne was a young boy he too was awed by this beautiful chocolate shop decorated with chandeliers, marble floors and a circular velvet banquette where Nantais have waited while their orders were filled since 1823. Handmade specialities include mascarons (finely ground chocolates encased in a dark chocolate shell) and a rainbow of hardboiled sweets.
reviewed
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Passage Pommeray
Pedestal statues symbolise traditional Nantais industries inside the ornate three-tiered shopping arcade Passage Pommeray, built in 1843 to link the then-stock exchange with the post office. Nearby are place Royale, laid out in 1790, and place Graslin, graced by the neoclassical Théâtre Graslin, built in 1788 and beautifully renovated earlier this decade.
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Fromagerie Jean D'Alos'
Near the Place des Grands Hommes is this highly respected fromagerie. If you are a lover of cheese in all its forms, soft, hard or blue, made from cow, sheep or goats milk, this shop will delight you. Buy some eye-wateringly aromatic Roquefort or a subtle chévre, a baguette and a bottle of something and retire to a park for a picnic. Vive la France.
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Gautier-Debotté
When Jules Verne was a young boy he too was awed by this beautiful chocolate shop's chandeliers, marble floors and circular velvet banquette, where Nantais have waited while their orders were filled since 1823. Handmade specialities include mascarons (finely ground chocolates in a dark-chocolate shell) and a rainbow of hard-boiled sweets.
reviewed
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Marché Saint-Michel
The popular and multi-ethnic market is held every Tuesday and Saturday morning alongside the Saint Michel Cathedral. It features stalls selling fresh fruits and vegetables, foodstuffs, and used clothing, as well as second-hand dealers, whose shops are set up around the Place to the south. It is a lively place that should not be missed.
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Le Fournil des Capucins
Le Fournil des Capucins near place de la Victoire, is a bakery that never closes. So if you're heading out early or rolling home late this place can provide all of your daily (and nightly) breads and cakes. Perfect for when you simply must have a brioche at 03:00 in the morning.
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Baillardran
For a taste of Bordeaux (that for once doesn’t involve wine!), head to Baillardran, which has several branches in town, including this one in the Galerie des Grands Hommes shopping centre, where you can watch the chefs make canelés, a local vanilla-infused fluted cake.
reviewed
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rue du Palais
The grand arch of Tour de la Grosse Horloge leads to the arcaded rue du Palais ,La Rochelle's main shopping street, lined with 17th- and 18th-century shipowners' homes. Two blocks to the east, rue des Merciers is also lined with arcades.
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Pare Gabia
Vincent Corbun continues his grandfather's business, established in 1935, making and selling espadrilles in a rainbow of colours and styles (customised with ribbons and laces while you wait). A pair starts from €10.
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Covered Market
The covered market sits on the riverfront. There are a number of tempting food shops and delicatessens along rue Port Neuf and rue d’Espagne.
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Covered Market
The lively, 19th-century covered market seethes with stallholders selling fresh fruit and vegetables, fish splayed on beds of ice, and just-killed meat.
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Pierre Ibaïalde
To buy Bayonne's famous ham at the lowest prices, visit the covered market or, for the best quality, visit a specialist shop such as Pierre Ibaïalde, where you can taste before you buy.
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Elkar
Elkar has a wealth of books and films on Basque history and culture, walking in the Basque Country, maps and CDs of Basque music.
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Craft Market
Authentic, handmade leather crafts, jewellery, sand sculptures and more are sold by the artists themselves on the waterfront.
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L'Intendant
A central spiral staircase climbing four floors is surrounded by cylindrical shelves holding 15,000 bottles of regional wine.
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Paul Bossuet
Cognac and pineau produced by this local vintner make great souvenirs, not least for their decorative bottles.
reviewed
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Galeries Lafayette
There’s a good-sized supermarket in the basement of the Galeries Lafayette department store.
reviewed
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Antique Market
Stalls of antiques fill the square on Sunday mornings. Located a 700m walk down river from the city centre.
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Galeries Lafayette
This massive department store has a basement food section open 09:00 to 19:30 Monday to Saturday.
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Book Shop
Mainly stocks titles relating to Lourdes plus a few novels, travel titles and walking maps.
reviewed
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Jean d’Alos
Jean d’Alos is a fine fromagerie with over 150 raw-milk and farm cheeses.
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