When I visited Normandy last summer, I was very pleased to see at the museum of the Tapestry of Bayeux, circa 1066, a reconstitution of a market scene of that time. It was lively and colorful!Note that if you rare curious and read my post about Bayeux , you will see a delightful top picture of the town at sunrise that Fifi Flowers later painted - and I could not resit buying it once I saw it. It is being framed by Marie K Verbois and I will show you the result once it is done!
French markets are older than that! In the 5C Paris, called then Lutece, had an open market in the Ile de la Cite, the island where Notre Dame is. Later in the 16 C, Paris has already four bread markets and one animal market.
Today there are 78 food markets markets in Paris, some are in the open air, or as they were called in the old times, market in the wind (marche au vent), and some are covered. The open air markets are set at around 8 am and pack back between Noon and 1 pm, a bit later on weekends. Sellers are proud of their products, like this "charcutiere" cutting thin slices of her home made ham.They take place on regular days. Tuesday and Friday are the days for my Molitor Market and Wdnesdays and Saturdays for the Auteuil market, both very very near my home.
Food markets in France sell the traditional market stape, vegetables and fruit, but also fish, charcuterie, poultry, or meats:
There over 36000 markets of all sorts in France, some are food markets, like this one in Marmande, in the Southwest: 
or this brocante near Bordeaux where old linen is sold: 
or this animal market in the Sarthe, region west of Paris (Capital Le Mans, where the 24 hours of racing are held every year) 
When you visit France, you will find that is right for you.
I'm in Los Angeles! Back to the beautiful Pacific Ocean, to the Santa Monica Farmer's market, to Ground Works for my morning coffee, to new discoveries, and to my dear Aurea - and Benjy.
With the Icelander volcano erupting and creating a huge ash cloud on "my" way to LAX, above the North Atlantic, we had to wait for over two hours, sitting in the 747, for a new route to be given to the KLM pilot. 
