Marché de Goussainville (Vieux Marché)
Drive ten minutes north of the terminals and the airport world evaporates entirely. Goussainville's weekly market on the Place du Marché fills with stalls selling Île-de-France cheeses, North African spices, fresh charcuterie and cut flowers — a genuine slice of suburban French daily life that most transit passengers never suspect exists.
What to Buy and Taste
The fromagerie stall near the central fountain typically carries aged Brie de Meaux, Coulommiers and Époisses alongside locally produced goat cheeses — ask the vendor to choose your ripeness and they will wrap it in paper with the pride of a sommelier selecting a grand cru.
A cluster of Maghrebi food stalls sells merguez sandwiches grilled on the spot, bowls of harissa and preserved lemons, and towers of sticky honey-drenched pastries. For under €5 you can assemble a picnic that tells the whole story of the Paris Region's multicultural food culture.
The Ghost Village Next Door
After the market, walk ten minutes east to the Vieux Goussainville, a partially abandoned medieval village whose stone church, 16th-century manor ruins and empty houses were left when runway expansion in the 1970s made the noise unbearable. It is one of the eeriest and most photogenic hidden gems in all of Île-de-France.
The church of Saint-Médard still stands with its original Romanesque portal intact, surrounded by long grass and the roar of overflying aircraft — a surreal juxtaposition that photographers and urban explorers find irresistible.
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