Rungis: the Market and the City – a Day at Europe's Largest Fresh Food Market

Posted4 months agoActive3 months ago

speckx

41 points

8 comments

vittlesmagazine.comOtherstory

calmpositive

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Food MarketsRungisUrban Culture

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Food Markets

Rungis

Urban Culture

The article explores Rungis, Europe's largest fresh food market, and its cultural significance, sparking discussion about similar markets and their history.

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01Story posted
Sep 19, 2025 at 11:53 AM EDT
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Discussion (8 comments)

Showing 8 comments

rmason

3 months ago

1 reply

In Detroit there's the Eastern Market, it's over 180 years old. I remember going there as a boy with my dad and it was like I'd imagine the United Nations is like with people speaking dozens of different languages. A very wide range of food, crafts and beverages. The aisles were packed and you could hardly make your way. Lots of small different restaurants. .

https://visitdetroit.com/inside-the-d/detroits-eastern-marke...

csunoser

3 months ago

Sadly, it seems like it is no longer about wholesale. Nothing wrong with that, but a working wholesales market like Rungis and Toyosu Market has a different kind of functional charm to it.

Animats

3 months ago

3 replies

Rungis is the successor to Les Halles, which was in Paris proper.[1] Like most of the big urban food markets worldwide, the serious wholesale business was moved out to somewhere that semitrailers could get in and park. The London and New York markets have been previously mentioned on HN.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Halles

bobthepanda

3 months ago

1 reply

Les Halles is also now the centerpiece of the RER, the express network built to supplement the inner city metro with frequent rail to the suburbs. RER A is now the busiest passenger railway in the West with over one million passengers a day.

pjerem

3 months ago

Also the biggest (in size) underground station of the world.

keiferski

3 months ago

My favorite piece of trivia about this market is the metro station Poissonnière is named as such, because it was along the road fishmongers brought fish to the market from the coast.

It’s not anywhere near a body of water, so if you don’t know the history, it seems rather curious.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poissonni%C3%A8re_station

decimalenough

3 months ago

The Sydney Fish Market is one of the few remaining exceptions. Even more amazingly, it's set to stay that way, as a shiny new tourist-friendly but, critically, still wholesale-geared fish market is about to open later this year right next to the old one, still in the inner city in Pyrmont.

https://www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/Corporate/The-New-Sydney...

Japan's Tsukiji was also a famous inner city market, only about a kilometer away from the Ginza, but it has been moved into the semitrailer-friendly boonies of Toyosu.

fuzztester

3 months ago

paywall after a few enticer paras.

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