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Noisy and bustling, this huge market draws thousands of people to L’Aigle every Tuesday. Hundreds of stalls, piled high with regional bounty from fruit and vegetables to cheeses and cider, are crammed into the town centre. Meanwhile, the livestock market (8:30–10:30 am), the third largest in France, provides raucous accompaniment; it’s not for the tender-hearted.

Handsome 18th-century houses line place St-Saveur, the attractive square in the centre of Caen where the pillory once stood, and where the colourful Friday market has been held since 1026. Stallholders sell traditional produce and, for early risers, an amazing selection of fresh fish.

Each Saturday, from 8am until noon, the long, pedestrian Grande Rue, lined with some 200 shops, becomes a massive open-air emporium. Locals set up stalls to sell their produce (organic fruit and vegetables, saucisses , jams), professionals bring imports (olives, honey, exotic cheeses) from every corner of France, and fishermen sell their morning-fresh catches. Dieppe is famous for its lisettes (baby mackerel), scallops and gendarmes , the smoked herrings available in November.

Place St-Marc is the scene of a lively market on Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with fruit, veg, bric-à-brac and second-hand book stalls. From 24 November, there’s a Christmas market in place de la Cathédrale. Stalls resembling chalets sell gastronomic specialities and arts and crafts. Among the events are concerts and pony rides.

Shopping in the traditional Tuesday market in Dives is an event, not least because it is held in the spectacular timbered halles with a red-tiled roof, built in the 15th century so that the local monastery could levy market taxes.

Like Dives-sur-Mer, this inland town has a magnificent covered market hall. Dating from the 11th century, it was the largest medieval hall in Normandy. After it burned down in 1944, it was completely rebuilt in the style of the original, using hundreds of thousands of wooden pegs instead of screws and nails. Small local producers bring their goods to the Monday market, which spills out of the hall.

One edge of the market that fills place St-Patrice every Saturday morning is devoted to local smallholders, their home-grown fruit and vegetables, home-produced cheese and sausages, and their livestock: perhaps a few geese, chickens and a litter of puppies. The other stallholders are professional retailers, selling clothes as well as food.

There’s a typical farmers’ market on Saturday mornings in the main square of this ancient and historic town. Here you can buy fresh produce from local farmers and fishermen among the stalls selling furniture, clothing and flowers.

An excellent farmers’ market is held on Thursday and Sunday mornings in the central square of this spa town on the Route du Fromage de Neufchâtel (see Étretat). Stalls offer a range of local produce: organic dairy products, eggs, smoked meat and fish, jam and the Pays de Bray cheeses including the famous Neufchâtel. On Thursday, there is a livestock market as well.

Local people dressed in peasant costumes, folk dancing, music-making and horse-drawn carriage rides are all part of the fun at Cambremer’s traditional market, staged every Sunday morning in the market place in July and August and on special occasions such as Easter, 1 May and Whit Sunday. Local producers mingle with regional craftsmen and artists.