Carpentras Truffle Market
Every Friday in Carpentras
A veritable institution, the Carpentras Truffle Market is held every Friday morning from mid-November to the end of March, in the Cour d’Honneur of the Hôtel Dieu de Carpentras, Place Aristide Briand.
It’s an intimate, silent and authentic market, shrouded in an indefinable atmosphere that surrounds this product full of mystery…
In small bags, the truffles wait like divas, with their beautiful black “tuber melanosporum” color: they dispense their perfume all over the market. The best truffles must have a firm consistency, a rounded shape and a grain on the shell that must be well chiselled, but not too large. Small groups of men and women, huddled together, exchange discreet phrases: a “romaine” and a “filoche” ready for use, transactions take place on the sly… But everything is neat, precise and fair … The big bags swell with truffles, and the market comes to an end.
The Carpentras market serves as a benchmark for other markets in the region: cellarers (collectors) from eight départements gather here and present their “rabasses” (truffles) to brokers, traders and curators from all over France.
Welcome to the truffle market in Carpentras ...
8:30 a.m. Carpentras awakes under a hazy sky, gripped by a biting cold. On the outskirts of the town center, a café terrace comes alive with steaming espressos: a group of berets seem to be chatting profusely over mysterious bags. As you approach the terrace, the air begins to embalm. A powerful, lingering aroma perfumes the air and sets our taste buds in motion. There’s no doubt about it, it’s truffles.
This is definitely where the “black diamond” market is held every Friday morning during the winter months in the town of Carpentras. The event brings together the region’s harvesters and merchants, as well as individuals who have come to learn, tourists and the older generation of Carpentras residents who oversee and chronicle the event.
The mushroom is smelled, brushed and even cannibalized to confirm its quality: of the thirty species of truffle listed, the tuber melanosporum, with its slightly bumpy contours and black flesh discreetly veined with white, is the one that is traded on the markets.
The truffle market is the only one in Provence with unparalleled discretion. All communication takes place behind closed doors! Fortunately, there are “the old-timers” who chat to make the moment a little less disconcerting for the tourist.
At 8.45am, the master of ceremonies, dressed in black down to his hat, takes over the middle of the square to blow the whistle opening the negotiations. “They call him the beautiful blackbird around here!”. It takes ten minutes, not one more, for the deal to be concluded. The market empties as quietly as it did at the start, and the merchants leave with their precious goods. It’s astonishing! Patience… the ritual isn’t over yet!
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