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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2015 11:47:36 GMT
The market in Rungis, which replaced the historic market of Les Halles in Paris is the largest mixed product (food and plant) market in the world, according to the tour guide, who pointed out that the whole market is bigger than the Principality of Monaco. He also mentioned that it is slowly declining, because modern technology allows more and more producers and customers to bypass central markets, but it looks like Rungis still has a number of years ahead of it and nobody is going to go hungry. This report took quite a bit more determination than many of the other reports here, because it is not the easiest thing in the world to get up and meet for a bus rendezvous at 4:30 a.m. Most of the market actually begins at midnight, but visits would be neither welcome nor feasible during the height of activity with workers running in every direction and loaders whizzing back and forth in the aisles. In fact, we were warned that we weren't extremely welcome in some of the buildings even as things got calmer, because the Rungis market receives 30,000 visitors on tours every year, which is a greater number than the actual customers coming to buy things. I was frankly surprised by the number of tours in progress at the same time this morning. As everybody stood around in different places donning their obligatory sanitary garb, I think I saw at least 10 different groups of 20-25 people.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2015 11:58:06 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2015 14:36:07 GMT
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Post by mossie on Oct 9, 2015 15:10:55 GMT
I approve of Renard Rouge dealing in fowls. Must say this is nowhere near the top of my "must visit "list
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 9, 2015 19:03:28 GMT
Renard Rouge is the real thing of the fox in the hen house.
Speaking of which, why were you all told to behave in the fowl section -- were you acting up?
It's all so sanitary! You can imagine what I was imagining. I'm amazed that there are not only guided tours, but also that there are so many people to take them. Were they all just thrill-seekers like you, or were some of them from watchdog agencies or concerned citizens' groups?
I like the silvery little fish (keeping company with a shark!) and the corseted rabbits. But I LOVE the photo of the three cow heads and URGE you to enter it in a photo contest. It is out of this world.
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Post by whatagain on Oct 9, 2015 22:59:07 GMT
Wonder who would be stupid enough to wake up so early... *yawn*
We were told to behave about everywhere but especially in fowls because one of the major players there is some kind of antisocial guy who doesn't like visitors What Kerouac doesn't say is that he has talents for persuading innocent people to join him on such trips (or tripes = 'gutts'). It was a very good idea indeed.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2015 5:37:02 GMT
It's all so sanitary! You can imagine what I was imagining. I'm amazed that there are not only guided tours, but also that there are so many people to take them. Were they all just thrill-seekers like you, or were some of them from watchdog agencies or concerned citizens' groups? We were surprised by the number of guided tours as well, considering at what time they take place. I don't think watchdog agencies worry about Rungis so much since there are all sorts of government institutions already keeping a close eye on operations. However, it is quite possible that lots of foreign visitors who work in the food industry come there to observe and learn, either because they are involved in local wholesale markets or as potential customers or suppliers. In our own group, most of the people seemed to just be curious people like ourselves who had always heard about the Rungis market and just wanted to see it with our own eyes. There were also quite a few British visitors in the same group. Anybody who wants to get a glimpse of the Rungis market without getting up at 3 a.m. can watch the Cédric Klapisch movie Paris, which has a major sequence that takes place at the market in the middle of the night.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2015 5:48:50 GMT
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 10, 2015 5:57:41 GMT
There are photos of the cows/steer in life on the hunks o'beef?!!! That is so weird -- like those tombstones with pictures of the deceased. Did they have names & dates, too? Bossy -- departed this life October 9, 2015 -- Taken from us too soon
The peeled skulls are disconcerting. My sister & I were stuffing our faces with some street breakfast outside a market in Tlaxcala when we glanced at the curb a few feet away to see a peeled beef head setting on the sidewalk staring at us. Since I am a horrible little hypocrite who preaches kindness to animals but still gobbles meat, I'm not squeamish about it in its uncooked form. But that sidewalk head and your photographs are a stark reminder that these were living, sentient beings in the recent past.
Still, GREAT pictures! The third one from the bottom in reply #6 looks like a page from a Renaissance sketch book and the sixth one from the top in that same post, with its disappearing perspective is a killer capture.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2015 10:03:49 GMT
Thanks, Bixa. Even the chest-thumping French ("we have the largest food market in the world!") know that the flower section is pitifully small compared to the Aalsmeer flower market in the Netherlands. You just can't compare the 990,000 square metres operated by the Dutch with the 22,000 square metres of flowers at Rungis. Nevertheless, there was plenty to see and we did not come anywhere close to seeing all of it.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2015 10:29:52 GMT
Obviously, this is the area with the greatest amount of potential wastage, and Rungis runs a special programme that saves about half of the 500 tonnes of unsellable fruits and vegetables. Using employees in rehabilitation programmes, the wilted or overripe items are sorted and categorised for resale in a social grocery store or transformed into meals for soup kitchens. The grocery sells the best items for a symbolic tiny amount to families that qualify, and the reason that they even ask for money is to avoid the stigma associated with charity and to allow the customer to feel that they are in a real store. Other charity associations are allowed to buy the products for 0.30€ a kilo, no matter what the item, organic or not. While it would be nice to think that the wholesalers are donating the stuff out of the goodness of their heart, they have a financial reason for doing so as well. Each wholesaler is allowed a certain number of tonnes of product to be reprocessed as compost, but if they have more (and of course they do), they are charged a destruction fee. The programme in place takes the excess amount on the condition that at least 30% of the products are usable.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2015 10:40:19 GMT
It was just past 8 a.m. and our visit ended. We were taken to our "butcher's breakfast" at one of the restaurants that opens at 4 a.m. for the workers. We had huge plates of cold cuts and cheese, fresh fruit salad and orange juice, coffee, tea, chocolate, various types of bread as well as pains aux chocolat. And carafes of wine. Right on schedule at 9:15 we were deposited back at our starting point in Paris. The day could begin! Yes, there is a little video to recap what we saw.
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Post by breeze on Oct 10, 2015 13:54:35 GMT
Fascinating. You spoke of the large chains finishing their shopping by 2am. Would these chains be buying from Rungis only for their Paris-area stores? I assume that each chain would have their own distribution centers around the country. Now I wonder.
Bixa, was your curbside cow's head surrounded by a host of large flies buzzing around? None genuine without its own halo of flies.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2015 17:52:53 GMT
Actually, it was explained -- although my predawn brain was not completely capable of understanding the explanation -- that centralising just about everything is more efficient, saves money, and is more ecological. So fish from Marseille goes to Rungis before being sold in nearby Nice. As for Paris itself, it was mentioned that only 2% of the products in Rungis come from the local region (Ile de France).
One interesting explanation that was made concerned the totally perverse effects of avoiding the Rungis distribution system. One of the hypermarket chains in France has created its own fisheries over the years by buying up fisheries in difficulty and integrating them into its system. This worked just fine until the fisheries started producing more seafood than the chain required. So the chain has to sell the excess at all costs or throw it away. So another hypermarket chain is buying the excess but demanding the very best items at the lowest possible price ("or we won't buy it"). So the second chain is underselling the chain that is producing the seafood and selling items of higher quality.
Capitalism, bah!
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Post by lugg on Oct 10, 2015 18:07:04 GMT
.
2nd photo below - the matching "feet" and "knees" ....just such a great photograph. I also liked the metal apron hanging next to those mean looking saws
I have to say I was relieved to move on to the cheese section and all that followed but I do remember my grandmother making pressed tongue , which was so good and nothing like the canned/ processed stuff generally available. The size of this food market is just mind blowing.
Thanks K2 -
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Post by chexbres on Oct 10, 2015 20:29:08 GMT
Well, I also tagged along on this little escapade, and despite the early hour and frigid temperatures, had an interesting time in good company. Either kerouac has hacked my photo gallery or we have the same eye for detail, so I won't bore anyone with what are mostly the same shots I wouldn't recommend this tour for average tourists, because I thought 80 EU was much too expensive for what we were allowed to see, and anyone could see (and taste) most of the same things we did in a much more convenient outdoor market setting anywhere in Paris. We were warned repeatedly that we were not to touch or approach the food, since a couple of missing grapes would render the whole case unsalable and would ruin the merchant's daily profit margin. There must have been some really nasty prior incident in the poultry pavilion, since in addition to the stern warning kerouac mentioned, we were herded through there in about 3 minutes and only allowed to linger near the exit where there were stacked boxes full of pre-fried chicken drumsticks and ready-to-cook kebabs. Most of us were looking forward to the promised encounter with "the wide selection of cheeses than are never found in stores" - but virtually all of them were sealed up tight in boxes or otherwise wrapped for protection, so all we could do was inhale deeply and dream about tasting them one day. There were a few vegetarians in our group, who were looking very faint near the end of the tour, and I'm not sure why they came along - maybe they thought there would be a meatless option? I did see several nuns collecting crates of fruit and vegetables and wheeling them away on dollies. I'm sure they went to people who appreciated them. I heard the same explanation about the donations vs destruction of food that would go bad before it was sold - but had hoped that the percentage that was donated would be much higher. There does seem to be a lack of organization here, which probably has to do with the interminable paperwork and regulations in France. It's a shame, because the food banks here are always running out of everything.
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Post by tod2 on Feb 6, 2016 19:28:23 GMT
What a fantastic report! Now I know what I missed due to the fact I was on a train heading for Munich. I would dearly have loved to come along and as an avid carnivore nothing would have turned my stomach. Yes, why on earth would a vegetarian want to do the tour....maybe some of the group came out vegetarians at the end
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2016 20:05:23 GMT
I agree, this is a wonderful photo essay. I, for one, we take the tour in a flash, even at that hour and that price.
I never knew that rabbit was halal and apparently, to some, it is (did an extensive google search when I saw it). It followed on my dinner conversation the other night whether of bear was kosher.
The health food co-op near my husband's place sells frozen camel milk. Now I've seen everything.
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Post by bjd on Feb 6, 2016 20:12:40 GMT
Thanks, Tod, for bringing this report forward. I hadn't seen it before and it's very interesting.
But you paid 80€ to tour Rungis and have breakfast?
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Post by chexbres on Feb 7, 2016 20:15:11 GMT
bjd - kerouac not only paid that much to climb in and out of a bus 4 or 5 times, then run quickly through Rungis and have cold cuts, cheese and bread for breakfast, he convinced two others to do the same, which required staying up all night so they could keep him company on this mad adventure! Without the cheerful company involved, though, the trip would not have been worth it - even with the wine served at breakfast.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2016 20:49:14 GMT
Although 80€ is "expensive," I did not consider it to be "outrageous" since buses must be hired to take groups from Paris more or less in the middle of the night and the driver and the guide have to be paid night work premiums. And they had to provide us with disposable smocks and bonnets -- those must be worth at least 0.75€ in themselves! Meanwhile, on a news programme this evening, there was a report about a school for butchers. After some courses on theory, the students got down to real butchery the next day. Beef carcasses are provided by the Rungis market, and the boned meat is returned to the market after the students have finished cutting out the bones and dividing the meat into the different categories of cuts. The report showed that quite a bit of the result is only good for becoming ground beef after that first hands-on experience. A qualified butcher can apparently do this work in 15 minutes, and these beginning students took.... 6 hours.
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Post by chexbres on Feb 8, 2016 14:53:22 GMT
As I recall, during the tour, someone mentioned that the best butchers at Rungis come from West Africa. There wasn't any meat cutting going on while we were there - they had pretty much finished with all that - but I would have liked to see them at work.
I can bone out a chicken pretty cleanly and quickly, but wouldn't know how to tackle a side of beef...
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Post by kerouac2 on Feb 27, 2019 5:14:34 GMT
Today is the 50th anniversary of the transfer the Paris central market from Les Halles to the suburb of Rungis. On the news they pointed out that the Rungis market is bigger than the principality of Monaco.
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