Marché de Vendôme (Friday Market)
Every Friday morning the Place Saint-Martin and surrounding streets transform into one of the liveliest weekly markets in the Loir-et-Cher, drawing farmers, cheese-makers, and charcutiers from across the region. Arrive before 9 am to watch locals pile baskets high with rillettes, Valençay goat's cheese, and fat asparagus from the Loire floodplains.
What to Buy and Eat
The market is strongest on local produce: look for white asparagus from the sandy soils around Vendôme (in season April–June), walnuts, and honey from the Gâtine hills. Several stalls sell ready-to-eat rotisserie chicken and sliced charcuterie — grab a portion and eat on the steps of the Saint-Martin tower.
Cheese hunters should head for the affineur who sets up near the covered section: his aged Crottin de Chavignol and creamy Selles-sur-Cher are sourced directly from small farms and taste nothing like the supermarket versions.
Beyond the Food
The Friday market also has clothing, household goods, and flower stalls, but the real reason to come is the social theatre of small-town French commerce — vendors who've known their customers for decades, unhurried haggling, and the smell of fresh-baked fougasse drifting from the boulangerie vans.
Pair the market with a coffee at one of the café terraces on Place Saint-Martin, where you can watch the whole spectacle from a wicker chair while the medieval tower of Saint-Martin looms pleasantly overhead.
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