French Market - Two Centuries of Trading
Photo: MusikAnimal, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
A stop on New Orleans French Quarter Walk, a free self-guided tour.
Walk under the long covered sheds and you are on one of the oldest trading grounds in the country. Native Americans traded along this bend of the river before Europeans arrived, and the city has set this strip aside as a public market since 1791, making it the oldest public market of its kind in the United States.
It began as the meat market, the one place in the Quarter where butchers were allowed to sell. Over time it grew into a place where farmers, fishers and cooks of every background met: Creoles, enslaved and free people of color, newcomers from Europe, and later many Sicilian families. The oldest surviving market buildings date from around 1813, and the market was largely renovated in the 1930s.
That mix of cultures is what you taste in the city's food: gumbo, red beans, pralines and fresh Gulf seafood. Browse the farmers market and craft stalls, and pick up a snack for the walk back.
Getting here: Walk back along Esplanade Avenue toward the river to Decatur Street, then turn right into the covered market sheds.
Did you know?: The market was originally called the Meat Market, because for years it was the only place in the Quarter where meat could legally be sold.
Photo op: Stand at one end of the open-air shed and shoot down the long row of columns and stalls for a deep perspective.
More on Wikipedia: French Market · Louisiana Creole cuisine · Gumbo
Stops on this tour
- Jackson Square - The Old Parade Ground
- St. Louis Cathedral - Three Spires on the Square
- The Cabildo - Where Louisiana Changed Hands
- Pharmacy Museum - America's First Licensed Pharmacist
- Royal Street - Galleries, Ironwork and Street Music
- Preservation Hall - Jazz in a Plain Room
- Congo Square - Where the Drums Kept Sunday
- Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop - A Legend in Brick and Timber
- Old Ursuline Convent - The Quarter's Oldest Survivor
- Old U.S. Mint - Coins, Then Jazz
- French Market - Two Centuries of Trading
- Cafe du Monde - Beignets by the Square