Marché du Cours Grandval, Bastia
While the tourist ports sleep in, locals have already claimed their spot at Bastia's Cours Grandval market, the most authentic weekly market on the island. Stalls groan with chestnut flour, fig jam, myrtle liqueur and whole legs of prisuttu — and the coffee at the surrounding cafés is excellent.
What to Buy & Eat
Corsican charcuterie is the headline act: lonzu (cured pork loin), coppa (neck salami) and figatellu (liver sausage) from free-range pigs that have grazed on acorns and chestnuts in the island's interior. Buy vacuum-packed portions to take home legally within the EU.
Brocciu, the fresh ewe's-milk cheese protected by a PDO designation, appears in every form here — plain, peppered, drizzled with chestnut honey. A vendor near the fountain usually offers tastings without pressure.
Chestnut flour (farine de châtaigne) is the other essential purchase: it makes the island's signature cake, castagnacciu, and is sold in 500 g bags for about €4 — a fraction of what delis charge on the mainland.
The Market Neighbourhood
The market spills into the Place du Marché and surrounding streets of the Terra Vecchia quarter, Bastia's oldest neighbourhood. Baroque church facades, laundry strung between shuttered windows and the smell of espresso create a scene that feels resolutely un-touristic.
After shopping, walk five minutes downhill to the Vieux-Port for a plate of aziminu — Corsica's version of bouillabaisse — at one of the harbourside restaurants that open for lunch from around noon.
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