Most cruising guides treat the market as something you fit around the sailing. On the Provence and Riviera coast I have come to do it the other way round. Some markets here are good enough that I will move a passage by a day to make one, and a few are good enough that I will plan a whole leg around being tied up the night before. This is a list of the ones worth that, with the days, the times and where to put the boat.
The thing to understand first is the rhythm. A Provencal market runs in the morning, finishes around 1300, and almost never opens on a Monday. Plan to be ashore by 0830 if you want the good stuff, because the best produce and the parking-sized stalls of the serious traders are gone by mid-morning, and the crowds arrive after ten.
Sanary-sur-Mer, Wednesday morning
If you make only one market this is the one. Sanary, a small fishing town between Marseille and Toulon, was voted the most beautiful market in France in 2018 by national television, and unlike a lot of award-winners it has not coasted on the title. The Wednesday market spreads the whole length of the port and under the plane trees on the Allees d'Estienne d'Orves, more than 300 traders, running roughly 0800 to 1300 all year round.
What makes it special for a sailor is that it is on the quay, among the town's traditional pointu fishing boats, so you can almost shop from the cockpit. The fish is landed locally, the vegetables come down from the Var hills, and there is everything from olive oil and tapenade to the brightly woven baskets you will want to carry it all in. I have bought a whole sea bass, a kilo of Var tomatoes, a slab of brousse cheese and a bunch of basil here for less than the cost of two main courses on a quayside terrace, and eaten better for it that night at anchor. Sanary has a marina right there, so a Tuesday-night arrival puts you a two-minute walk from the stalls. This is the market I would build a week around, and it pairs naturally with the wider habit covered in the provence food markets by boat guide.
Nice and the cours Saleya, almost daily
The Cours Saleya in the old town of Nice is the most famous market on the coast and rightly so, though it is a different animal from Sanary. It runs Tuesday to Sunday, roughly 0600 to 1330, in the long pedestrian square a few streets back from the seafront. Tuesday to Saturday it is the flower-and-produce market, a riot of cut flowers, Mentonnais lemons, candied fruit, socca and the local olives. On Monday the traders pack up and it becomes an antiques and brocante market instead, which is its own reason to come.
For a boat, the catch is berthing. Port Lympia, the old port of Nice, is right there but it is busy, pricey and often full in season, so many crews lie at a neighbouring marina and come in by bus or on foot. If you are passing along this stretch the french riviera sailing guide sets out the berthing realities, which matter more here than almost anywhere.
Cannes and the marche Forville, daily but Monday
Cannes has a reputation for being all glitz, but its covered market a few minutes from the Vieux-Port is the real working larder of the town. Marche Forville runs Tuesday to Sunday, around 0730 to 1300, and is closed Monday like everything else, though on Mondays a brocante takes its place under the same roof. This is where the restaurant chefs buy, so the fish counter is excellent and the produce is graded for people who cook for a living.
The Vieux-Port de Cannes is a short walk away, which makes Forville one of the easier markets to provision from if you are tied up for the night. Buy your fish here in the morning and you have dinner aboard sorted before the day-trippers arrive.
Saint-Tropez, on the Place des Lices
Yes, Saint-Tropez is expensive, and yes, the market on the Place des Lices reflects that. But it is also genuinely good, twice a week, Tuesday and Saturday mornings, in the famous square under the plane trees where the locals play petanque. It mixes serious food stalls with clothes, antiques and the sort of linens people buy on holiday and never wear again. Come for the produce and the people-watching, and do not expect Sanary's prices. The town from the water is covered in saint-tropez by sea, berthing politics and all.
The smaller markets worth a detour
Beyond the famous four, several smaller ports run markets that reward a crew willing to bend the route. Bandol, next door to Sanary, has a daily morning market by its harbour and is an easy berth. Antibes runs a covered Provencal market on the Cours Massena every morning except Monday in season, a short walk from Port Vauban, the largest marina in Europe by tonnage. Hyeres holds market days on the Place de la Republique that pull in the islands crowd, handy if you are staging out to Porquerolles. None of these will dethrone Sanary, but on a Monday, when the headline markets are shut, knowing where a town still trades can save your provisioning. The rule of thumb on this coast is simple: the bigger the resort, the more likely the market has been polished for tourists, and the smaller the fishing port, the more likely you are eating what came off the boats that morning.
How to shop a Provencal market as a boater
A few habits make these mornings far more useful, and stop you arriving back at the boat with a crisis of melting cheese and no plan.
- Take a cool bag and buy the fish and dairy last, just before you leave, never first.
- Buy the day's bread early because the best boulangerie stalls sell out, then buy fruit, veg and cheese, then fish.
- Carry cash. Many stalls take cards now but the small producers, the ones you actually want, often do not.
- Ask for it "pour ce soir" or "pour demain", for tonight or tomorrow, and a good stallholder will pick fruit ripened to match.
- Do not haggle on food, it is not done, but at the very end of the morning some traders drop prices to clear, so a late pass can be cheap.
Reading the days so you do not waste a leg
The single most common mistake visiting crews make is sailing into a pretty port on a Monday and finding the whole place shut. Almost every market on this coast is dark on Monday. Build your week so that your provisioning stops land on market days: Sanary on Wednesday, Saint-Tropez on Tuesday or Saturday, Cannes any day but Monday, Nice any day but, ironically, Monday for the food. Cross-reference with the public-holiday calendar too, because a jour ferie can close the lot.
Once you start planning passages around markets, the coast changes shape. The pretty bays are still pretty, but the towns become places to eat well off your own galley rather than overpay on a quayside terrace. For the eating-out side of the same coin, the eating ashore harbour restaurants france guide explains how to spot the kitchens worth the money. Between a good market in the morning and the right restaurant at night, Provence is the easiest coast in France to eat brilliantly on a cruising budget, and the markets are where it starts.
