Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse is a Gastronomic Wonderland

A food market in Lyon, France with over 50 food vendors specializing in everything from classic French pastries and cheeses to truffles and frog legs.

Food motivated travelers – the next time you head to France, skip Paris and opt for Lyon, the country’s culinary capital. Lyon has a bustling gastronomic scene, in fact the city has one of the highest concentrations of restaurants in France per capita, including 23 Michelin stars spread over 19 restaurants, a variety of brasseries and bistros, and bouchons – a type of restaurant unique to Lyon specializing in serving traditional Lyonnaise cuisine (i.e. pot au feu, quenelles, coq au vin). For centuries, Lyon has been the epicenter of France’s gastronomic innovation where cutting-edge cooking techniques have emerged and gone on to transform the global culinary landscape.

Opportunities for exquisite restaurant dining abound in Lyon, but the city’s real culinary gem is Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse, a vast market of rare gastronomic delicacies consisting of over 50 food vendors and purveyors offering the best cheeses, pastries, seafood, wine, butchery, prepared foods, and more. The original market opened in 1971 and underwent extensive renovations in 2004 that were completed 2 years later, reopening with nearly 140,000 square feet of space and the addition of Paul Bocuse’s name, the late world-renowned chef regarded as the “the Pope of French gastronomy” whose restaurants brought international acclaim to Lyon.

Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse is a technicolor food wonderland you could spend hours in and not come even close to seeing all it has to offer. Early in the morning, you’ll find fish mongers prying open prized oysters from France’s northern coast, fromagers splitting tire-sized wheels of comté ready to be sampled by and portioned for the day’s visitors, and boulangers and patissiers laying out freshly baked bread and pastries in every form imaginable. One scene forever imprinted in my mind was a cook at the stall Baba la Grenouille frying a kilo of frog legs in heaps of butter until golden brown, then smothering them in garlic and parsley.

Frog legs at Baba la Grenouille

I have long considered food markets to be the pulse of a city’s cuisine, such as is the case with the Tsukiji Outer Market in Japan or the Mercado de San Juan in Mexico City. Markets like these are true temples of gastronomy preserving and amplifying the essence of a culture’s foodways. While the modern food hall movement has looked to streamline the experience of gastronomic exploration, trading in the convivial market environment for polished and overly-sanitized facilities where seating takes precedent over vendor space, consumers have ultimately been stripped of the real opportunity to learn about the food they are eating in a way that true food markets allow. Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse may be a sensory overload to the uninitiated, especially those who are squeamish at the thought of seeing a chicken with its head still on or a butcher hacking apart a full pig, but visitors ultimately form a deeper, more intimate experience as they are face to face with the people that grow, raise, forage, and prepare the ingredients and dishes they will soon devour – whether next to the vendors’ stalls or at home. In my experience, these vendors are more than happy to answer questions and provide the right recommendations for whatever the occasion may be. It’s a complete divergence from the typical supermarket experience many of us are use to, where we buy prepackaged meat, fish, vegetables, and other food items transported from an undisclosed locale.

The next time that urge to travel to France arises, consider Lyon, and especially make sure set aside a few hours for Les Halles de Lyon Paul Bocuse. You will be hard pressed to find a more complete collection of French ingredients and culinary practices on display anywhere else in the country.

Recommended Vendors:

• Baba la Grenouille - frog legs and seafood

• Maison Merle huîtres et coquillages - oysters and seafood

• MONS - cheese

• Boulangerie Jocteur - bread

• Maison Gast - charcuterie

Address

• 102 Cours Lafayette, 69003 Lyon, France

Hours (Some vendors operate during different hours. Check the full list of vendors and their hours here):

• Monday - Saturday: Open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.

• Sundays & Public Holidays: Open from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.