Small is Beautiful in Monaco

New man on the block, Mr Brunengo

Mr Brunengo's selection of Italian produce

People in Monaco seem surprised when I tell them I do most of my food shopping at Monaco's  traditional market in the pretty Place d'Armes. Surprisingly, some people don't even know where it is.  Different strokes, as they say!

Most Monaco residents do their day-to-day shopping at the modern, gigantic, Carrefour Supermarché in Fontvielle, a neighbourhood built on reclaimed land that was once the Mediterranean sea.

Tender, greenhouse grown basil from Mr Brunengo

I'll admit that the prices at Carrefour are good and you can find anything and everything on their shelves, but in general, I avoid it like the plague.  It's bigger than a football stadium, lit like an operating theatre, and filled with an oddly large number of cranky customers and staff.  Maybe it's the damp.

Personally, I prefer to shop at the market, out of doors, from polite, informed vendors, with free delivery and the sun shining on our smiling faces.  Go figure!

For its modest size, the market has an outstanding variety of French, Italian and rare and fine imported products.  Local chefs dressed in their chef's whites shop here all the time.  The market has been on the same site for 132 years and this summer, the Prince and Princess cut the ribbon at the grand re-opening after a year or so of loud renovations.  I'm always grateful that the market is there, a short walk downhill from where I live.

During the week, the vendors are mainly resellers with a smattering of local producers.  There's Romy, who brings extraordinary things from her bountiful farm in St Jeannet.  Then  there's the gentlemanly Gilbert my "egg man" from Sospel whose fresh eggs with dark orange yolks make the most billowy souflées imaginable.  The line-ups to buy them form at 8AM when he arrives and disband around noon when he packs up for the day. 

Gilbert takes a photo break with me at the market

On Saturdays, all the local producers are there, under the market's loggia, along with some organic vendors added to the mix. 

On Friday when I was at the market to buy eggs from Gilbert, I was happy to see that a new local Italian producer, Mr Domenico Brunengo had arrived on the scene to sell his produce on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to fill in the gap between Romy's Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday visits.  This was his third day at the Monaco market.  His friend, the lovely and multilingual Jorien was on hand and she was able to fill me in on Mr Brunengo's business, in perfect English, one of her six languages.

Gilbert's son at the helm

Mr Brunengo grows his products in Ospedaletti and Vallecrosia, two small Ligurian villages  between Ventimiglia and San Remo, about an hour's drive from Monaco.  He pulled out his iPhone and proudly showed me some photos of the succulent greens he had growing in his greenhouses and teased me by telling me that he'd be foraging for Porcini, Sanguine and Chanterelle and hoped to have some for sale soon.  When he's not selling his produce in the Monaco market he's busy at his stand in the Ventimiglia market, snuggled in the row of local Italian growers there.  He also delivers.

Romy and her fresh bounty

A few years ago Monaco's market was floundering but it's heartening to see it slowly coming alive again with people grabbing lunch inside the market building or sharing a coffee at one of the outdoor cafés that line one side of the market.  With more local producers on the scene with different products and price points, there'll be more choice for everyone.

Take that Carrefour!

Turnip from Romy, romanesco from Domenico