Toulouse, Victor Hugo Market

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Toulouse, Victor Hugo Market

Kathleen (Leno) is landing in Toulouse this morning so we took advantage of the Victor Hugo market before her plane landed.

Victor Hugo Marche is an enclosed market that is open Tuesday-Sunday from 6 am- 1 pm. Sunday morning in Toulouse was overall pretty quiet until we reached the market. We arrived about 8:00 am & it was quite an interesting hustle & bustle. The produce stands were filling delivery orders, local chefs were stocking up for their cafes/brasseries and the night crew had just gotten off of work and were having drinks at the cafe stands within the market. But these workers who had just clocked out weren't having cafe, they were having beer or wine. I have never seen so many intoxicated people in the morning. (perhaps except in Vegas) We were fascinated to see the baristas at these standing cafe bars start to fry up steaks & veggies to help sober up this night crew at 9:30 am.

Seriously.... Can you see those wine glasses behind Steve??? They are completely filled to the top. Did I mention that its barely 9:30 am??? BTW, it is important to point out that those wine glasses are not Steve's.

On to the important part, the food!!!! This is the greatest combination of seafood, meats, cheese & produce that I have seen in this area. The seafood was very impressive.

In addition to the seafood, the meat counters were fabulous. A local specialty is 'Saucisse Toulouse.' It is a pork sausage made with wine & herbs. We found another favorite, Cassoulet! At this market many of the vendors had pre-made jars of it for sale. So guess what's for dinner???? Saucisse, Cassoulet and some of the greatest looking artichauts, carrottes, asperge & pomme de Terre! And of course pain & frommage! Good thing we have guests visiting to help us eat all of this food!

When we hit this counter for our specialty toulouse sausage, the owner was walking around with a cookie tray sized platter of toasts & spread. Turns out this spread was some sort of warm & spicy sausage mixture. We have no idea what it's made of and thats probably best because it is absolutely amazing. This will make a debut at our dinner table today also!