Marché de Amboise
Just 12 kilometres up the Loire from Chenonceau, the Sunday morning market in Amboise fills the riverside streets below the royal château with the best of Touraine's larder — rillons, goat's cheeses, wild mushrooms and the fat strawberries the region is famous for. It is the perfect half-day pairing with a Chenonceau visit.
What to Buy and Where to Stand
The market spreads along Rue Nationale and spills onto the quays facing the Loire every Sunday from around 8:30 am to 1:00 pm. Look for the stalls selling rillons de Tours — cubes of slow-braised pork belly caramelised to a deep mahogany — and the local chèvre producers from the Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine appellation, whose ash-rolled logs are sold at different stages of ripeness.
The mushroom vendors are worth a dedicated stop: the tufa caves of the Loire are ideal for cultivating champignons de Paris and more exotic varieties. Prices are a fraction of what you'd pay in a Paris market.
Eating & Drinking Around the Market
Several café terraces on Place Michel Debré open early for the market crowd. Order a café crème and a warm croissant and watch the town wake up with the château looming on the cliff above — it is one of the Loire's great free spectacles.
Pick up a demi-baguette, a wedge of Sainte-Maure cheese and a slice of rillons for a picnic on the Loire riverbank. The grassy quays just below Amboise bridge are ideal, with views of the Île d'Or mid-river.
Marché de Amboise on video
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