Rungis

[halland]

I'm looking forward to my trip to Paris at the end of this coming January. I just read about Rungis and now want to go check it out. Does anyone have advice on how to get in or who to contact to arrange a tour?

I apologize if I asked this already, I'm so exhausted from remodeling my kitchen that I can't see straight.

Hal

[Louisa Chu]

Rungis Edited November 10, 2003 by loufood (log)

[Bux]

I've always been led to believe the public had no access to the market. It's not like Les Halles used to be, or like Washington Market in Manhattan was like before those markets were moved out of the city centers. It's really an industrial place. However their web site seems to indicate there are tours. I seem to recall Adam Gopnik speaking about being taken to Rungis, in one of the chapters in his book From Paris to the Moon.

From the Rungis web site:

       If you are a member of a tourist or senior citizen group

      

       Visits starts at 0930 (Tuesday, Thursday and Friday),

       lasting around 1.5 - 2 hours

       Information video shown, followed by discussion with guide

       Visit to the fruit and vegetable section

       Cost : 14€ per person

      

       Further information :

       secretariat.general@semmaris.fr

       tel: 01 41 80 80 81   

Terms of access to the Rungis Market

Access to the Rungis Market is free of charge, but it is not permitted to buy any products, unless as part of a professional activity giving the right to do so

In the case of vehicles, a parking entrance fee is paid at the different entry points, with the amount varying according to the vehicles technical specifications (tonnage, height of the bonnet to the right of the front axle)

         

In general, buyers have a magnetic buyers and access card, which have loaded on them a set number of entries..

It's rather unclear if you have to come with a group, or if there are regularly scheduled guided tours or even if you have to be a marketing or culinary student to arrange for a group tour.

Here's the web site. If it doesn't come up in English, click the UK flag. Poke your way around, send an e-mail to the address listed or call the phone number.

http://www.rungisinternational.com/

Good luck and if you have any success, please report back to us.

Edit: I see loufood has edited her reply to post the same link, but I'll leave this stand.

[Louisa Chu]

OK - here's the deal. When I visited Rungis - with Cordon Bleu - their guide told me that no, the general public was not allowed - not allowed to buy anything - blah, blah, blah. And that's what I first posted above - before I checked their site and edited - give me a little slack it's 3 o'clock in the morning Paris time and I have to work tomorrow. But then I remembered - hey, I'm in France - where they'd sooner tell you something's not possible rather than explain the intricacies of their own system.

So, for a guided tour - yes, you need to be part of a group - 15 mininum - regular tourists OK. If you're less than 15, you get no tour, but still can visit limited areas - at limited times - and buy limited products - no sides of beef for you. Best to email or call for specific details of day desired.

Interesting factoid learned through Rungis info video - fish caught off the coasts are often sent to Rungis first - then back to the town where they were first caught for sale. Creepy factoid - during the heatwave this summer, unclaimed bodies were stored in refrigerated trucks out there.

[Bux]

Hey, go to bed. It's already tomorrow in France. Actually I started looking at the Rungis site before you posted and then I saw your original post so I thought I'd post the two bits of info I found and when I did, I saw you already posted the link. Great minds thinking alike.

hey, I'm in France - where they'd sooner tell you something's not possible rather than explain the intricacies of their own system.

It's the same the whole world over. It's easier to tell you it's not possible than for them to bother learning how it's done. I had the same problem with the front desk at a hotel in Spain. I needed the code to get on their wireless network. Didn't know what I was talking about although I pointed at the bilingual sign on the counter. We're not Internet people they said, while I was figuring they were hotel people and I was aksing about an advertised hotel service. Just hope they'll go away is an international way of dealing with people.

[pbrooks]

We went a couple of years ago, and had no trouble getting in without a tour and in moseying around. If you do go on your own, be sure to stop by the Information office and pick up the guide, Who Does What at Rungis (in French; I don't know if it's also available in English).

[oscubic]

I was in Rungis a few weeks ago, took the earliest metro out to the southeasternmost stop (forget the name) and then took the bus out to the market, which was relatively full of people headed in that direction. There is also a night bus from Chatelet that leaves earlier. Many of them did not appear to be professionals, a few even seemed to be people scavenging throwaway fish and such. I attempted to contact the English tour number listed in the Food Lover's Guide to Paris book, but that number appears to have been disconnected, so I went alone. Although I arrived towards the closing of the fish market, I had no problems perusing any of the twentysome buildings, and many of the merchants allowed me to take pictures of their displays after I asked permission. I didn't attempt to buy anything, as realistically I couldn't expect to eat entire flats of produce without access to a kitchen. It's quite an amazing experience, akin to Tsukiji, albeit for produce; however I felt the quantity was more impressive than the variety of produce. The cheese buildings also are quite amazing and pungent, even at below 0 degrees. Once I get back to the states in December I'll post some pics.

[fabien]

Access to RUNGIS is totally free. Go there around 2 hours after midnight. No tours, as far as I know, are organised. It is located 6km south of Paris. The RER will take you there

[Bux]

The cheese section must be amazing, although I suspect many of the best artisanal cheeses are distrubuted more directly and not through the large wholesale market. Any thoughts on this after seeing Rungis?

[oscubic]

Bux, I suspect that you may be correct about this. Most of the cheese vendors I saw were of the larger manufacturers and wholesalers and not individual cheesemakers specializing in one variety. Even so, they still had a fairly large selection of seemingly high quality fresh cheeses as well as the aged, dry giant wheels. I suspect some of those wheels must have weighed 300 lbs or so. I really wonder what the smell must have been like during this past summer.

Go there around 2 hours after midnight. No tours, as far as I know, are organised. It is located 6km south of Paris. The RER will take you there

If I'm not mistaken the RER closes after midnight?

[magnolia]

Interesting factoid learned through Rungis info video - fish caught off the coasts are often sent to Rungis first - then back to the town where they were first caught for sale.

I am pretty sure the same thing happens in the UK.

[magnolia]

Many of them did not appear to be professionals, a few even seemed to be people scavenging throwaway fish and such.

They are called "glaneurs" and Agnes Varda made a wonderful film about them called "Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse" - rent it if you can.

[DRColby]

There is an American food writer/tranlator who inherited the right to run tours of Rungis. her name is Stepahnie Curtis and I have miss placed her e-mail and phone but her address is:

Stepahnie Curtis

10 Rue Poussin

75016 Paris

We took her tour two years ago and would highly recommend it because Rungis is, like, 540 acres, there's much to see, and starts very early. I think we left at 4 a.m.

Depending what you are interest on there is much going on. We spent a small amount of time with an ofal butcher. He showed us the effects and precautions taken because of Mad Cow disease.

The other thing Stepahnie knows and does at tour end is stiop for breakfast within the market and to shop. She was doing this tour only one day a week when we visited.

By all means, though, go. Rungis is not to be missed.

Dave Colby

[Bux]

There is an American  food writer/tranlator who inherited the right to run tours of Rungis.  her name is  Stepahnie Curtis and  I have miss placed her e-mail and phone but her address is:

      Stepahnie Curtis

      10 Rue Poussin

      75016 Paris 

Pages Blanches, the French online residential telephone directory, lists three phone numbers for her.

01 45 27 05 05

01 45 27 09 09

01 45 25 21 37

[Lisa J]

Stephanie's email address is stecurtis@aol.com.

She still does the tour, but I am not sure how often since it requires getting to the market around 3AM.

btw, she is also the contact for the international program at Le Ferrandi - the culinary school run by the Paris chamber of commerce, where I am a student.

Lisa

[Bux]

Lisa welcome to the France forum. I hope we hear more about le Ferrandi from you. Loufood has written extensively about le Cordon Bleu. It would be good to get some information about le Ferrandi on a separate thread.

[Lisa J]

Thanks for the welcome Bux. I would be happy to write about le Ferrandi and I will start a separate thread. I have been lurking around eGullet for over year, and it is about time I started posting regularly! I am about halfway through the school year now, and I think I finally have made it past the point where all I want to do outside of class is sleep.

[Louisa Chu]

The cheese section must be amazing, although I suspect many of the best artisanal cheeses are distrubuted more directly and not through the large wholesale market. Any thoughts on this after seeing Rungis?

Never fish, meat, or cheese at Rungis.

[erica graham]

Going shopping at Rungis on Sunday for three days (yes we do hav a buying card- very easy to obtain) only thing is- we've never been near it before, so I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for eating out in the area. We will be staying in a local hotel, and getting up at 2am to start buying, so needs to be simple and not far away.

Hope someone can help!

[LindaK]

I visited Rungis about 10 years ago while I was taking a class at the Ecole Ritz Escoffier. As a group, it was small, only my class, about 12 people, and we arrived at about 2 am--and business was in full swing. Aside from the buildings devoted to the food products themselves, I think what amazed me most was its size. The van we used to get there from Paris was helpful in getting around the place. It's not a big supermarket, it's a small town. It has banks, cafes, child care facilities, and I was told even an elementary school.

As for the food sources, it's been a while but what impressed me most were the fish and shellfish purveyors. Amazing selection. I would second the comments above about the cheeses. I'll probably never again see so much cheese in one place, but it wasn't small artisinal producers. The other big visual impression was of the abattoir. I have a photo (non-digital, sadly, or I'd post it) of hundreds of calf heads hanging from hooks in the rafters...

Speaking of the abattoir, a funny story that might be helpful. My group returned to central Paris about 7 am, and I took the metro back to my apartment for a few hours nap before going back to school. It was rush hour and so crowded, but somehow I had plenty of room and places to sit...it was odd but I was tired and didn't care. I get home, throw off my clothes (relax, this is G rated) and crawl into bed...and what wakes me up a few hours later is this sickening, pervasive, TERRIBLE smell. My clothes, the bedsheets, my hair...STUNK. and I mean STUNK. It took a few loads of laundry, some serious scrubbing in the shower, and lots of open windows to get rid of the parfum de l'abattoir. I still wonder what the poor folks stuck on the same metro car with me were thinking...

[erica graham]

I get home, throw off my clothes (relax, this is G rated) and crawl into bed...and what wakes me up a few hours later is this sickening, pervasive, TERRIBLE smell.  My clothes, the bedsheets, my hair...STUNK.  and I mean STUNK. 

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Hmm, my husband wants to buy some tripe- don't think I'm that keen on the smell issue!!

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Hmm, my husband wants to buy some tripe- don't think I'm that keen on the smell issue!!

←

A triperie might be a source satisfactory to both of you.

[Christopher Haatuft]

do you have to buy cases of whatever youre buying there, or can I buy one pineapple if I want? Some of my purcheses will be large, but I know Ill want a little of this and some of that if I get the chance to shop at Rungis...

[LindaK]

You can't buy at Rungis without a commercial account. No retail sales. If you want to buy a few kilos of this or that, there are plenty of marches in Paris.

[dougal]

This link might be of interest to some ...

http://www.visiterungis.com/vr.php?lg=an&p=303&ml=3