Food blogger François-Xavier (FX) managed to visit the Mecca of French food:

Rungis, just outside Paris, is a cult place for gourmets. It is so huge you need a car to go from one hall to the next. That is where Parisian chefs buy what they cook.

Rungis is the world’s largest wholesale market for fresh produce. Fish, meat, fruits, vegetables, cheese and even fresh flowers are sold here every day in quantities so large an entire train station and highway exit has been built to serve it.

Being just outside Paris – you can see the Eiffel Tower and the Tour Montparnasse in the horizon on the picture above – Rungis serves many Parisian restaurants or great standing. The market has distinguishing clients and only the freshest, highest quality products can hope to be sold. This make it a very attractive place to visit for a travelling gourmet such as myself. But one cannot visit Rungis. There are no passenger trains or buses, no subways and most taxis won’t drive there. You need a card to enter. Locals are not hugely friendly to outsiders. And Rungis works between midnight and 7 AM. So how did I manage to visit? [...]

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