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What a glorious sunny Melbourne winter’s day!

Today I decided to head into town to see the French 🇫🇷 Bastille Day winter markets at the Queen Victoria Market. I hadn’t been there in many years so I was keen to see how the place had evolved. It’s usually quite busy on market days with the tourists but also the locals who bring their trolleys to stock up on fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy.

The French Market was in Sheds C and D so I headed there first.

But as I was walking along the street, my eye caught this fascinating Art Deco building in amongst the ugly skyscrapers. It was the old Army Medical Corps Drill Hall (Check out the wonderful stone sign in the font of that particular era). It was built in 1939 as part of the build up of defence buildings prior to WW2. You can read more about this building here.

Today it houses the Royal Historical Society of Victoria so I had to check out the opening times to visit one day soon to check out their exhibition and bookshop. I did like how they had boards of history information for the public to read on the buildings around Queen Victoria Market. I wish they could do more around the city as I find our town (despite dirty, graffitied and a building site at the moment 🤮 ) to be full of fantastic history and stories.

The French market had a variety of different stalls of French produce. I was surprised that there wasn’t too many but the important ones were there like food vans (crepes, galettes, pastries and the like). I stopped off at the International Language book store and went through the different novels in the stall.

Chatting with the lady there, she recommended the novels by Valerie Perrin. There were some others I had seen that I did reviews on my YouTube channel from authors like Patrick Modiano, Amelie Northomb and Delphine De Vigan (of course I had read these books in English).

There were lots of people gathering for lunch so I bought a lemon, butter and sugar crepe and took my time going through the stalls and listened a bit to the French singer who was entertaining the crowd. I even submitted my details on various competitions.

One in particular was a subscription to Canal+ TV. Usually that’s $55 per month to get access to over 30 French channels.

If I win, you may find me just sitting in front of the tv all next year.

By this stage, I had seen enough and figured “while I’m here I may as well see the rest of QVM” so I headed to the food hall.

There’s a lot of restoration work on the market site which has been a market since Melbourne was founded. I stopped every so often to read the history placards about information on the site. The old shop fronts along Peel Street were restored and it was lovely to a bit of a look through the windows.

There’s an amazing selection of food and produce in the Food Halls and it’s the place to go if you want to try out any cuisine from anywhere around the world.

I always say to people that Andrew and I have travelled the world, but I still believe that Australia has the best food, coffee, cafes and restaurants from anywhere I’ve experienced in the world.

You can find anything you want here. It’s a melting pot of cultures and this translates into our food. So for that, we are lucky.

I didn’t end up buying anything as I didn’t want to carry it home on the train. By this stage, I was getting a bit hungry and in need of coffee. There were simply too many choices that I was overwhelmed so I decided to go home and relax with a toastie and a cuppa.

A lovely day out today to enjoy the last of the sunshine before the rains set in tomorrow and into the new week.