Trevor Huxham

Artichokes When I visited the gorgeous city of Girona just north of Barcelona two Junes ago, I came into town expecting to stay just two nights before returning back to BCN and from there to Santiago. No, this isn’t one of those cliché “I just had to extend my stay!” posts—I literally thought I had only booked two nights in my hostel…but come to find out, I had actually booked (and pre-paid for) three! Fuet sausage Another happy surprise was that my (now-longer-than-expected) time in Girona overlapped with the biweekly (twice-weekly?) open-air market, as I found out while reading the hostel’s bulletin board. What better way to spend a Tuesday than by taking in the sights and smells of the building blocks of the local cuisine? It was a literal walk in the park to get to this market as they had moved the stalls that typically line the banks of the Ter River into a sprawling wooded park for the summer. Tomatoes

Arles holds a special place in my memory, not only because this southern French city guards a dazzling treasure trove of Roman monuments, but also because twice a week it puts on a huge show honoring local products and individual shopkeepers: Le Marché d’Arles . When my travel buddy, Melissa, and I visited Arles in February , we made sure to time our visit on a Saturday so as to coincide with the city’s huge market, which combines what we would call flea markets and farmers markets in the States. Kiwis, lemons, and oranges Held every Wednesday and Saturday morning since 1584, the market of Arles takes place right outside the limits of the old town, alternating between the Boulevard Émile-Combes to the east on Wednesdays and the Boulevard des Lices to the south on Saturdays. Markets such as these make for one of the best ways to get to know a city’s culture and that of the surrounding region, and Arles’ was no different. We rubbed shoulders with longtime residents and recent i...

I haven’t written much yet about the city I’m currently living in this year—Santiago de Compostela in the northwestern region of Galicia—mainly because I have a backlog of 300+ pictures to edit and upload. Hopefully by this summer, I’ll have everything put up so I can start talking about what has become one of my favorite cities in the country. For now at least, all I’ve got are some shots of the city’s mercado de abastos  or farmers market, which is becoming a big tourist attraction yet still small enough that you don’t feel lost inside. Cabbage and carrots Santiago’s market is one of my favorite places in the entire city,  mainly because a huge part of Galician culture is its delicious food, but also because I love eating, cooking, and supporting local producers rather than big chain supermarkets. Tetilla cheese Although the current collection of eight granite halls was built in 1941, the farmers market has been held almost daily since the late 1800s in a loca...