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Where to Buy French Market Baskets Online

French market basket filled with pink flowers

Where to Buy French Market Baskets Online

My French market basket is a part of my everyday life in France. Whether carrying warm baguettes, cheese and fresh fruit around the market, packing for a picnic, storing extra towels or blankets in guest rooms or keeping twigs and logs near the fireplace, they are an essential French item around my home. In this post I share where you can buy your French market baskets online.

In France the French market basket isn't just a bag - it's a way of life. Whether it's a quick stop at the village market or packing for a sun-drenched weekend escape, you'll see women of all ages carrying these effortlessly chic French style baskets. Market baskets are as quintessential to French life as croissants and wine and once you have one, you'll find so many uses for it, you'll likely find one is never enough.

In France you'll find them in all shapes and sizes from the classic oversized tote to smaller charming circular baskets or petite vegetable baskets, just as you'd expect in a Provencal kitchen.

If you're interested in the story behind the French market basket, their tradition, how and where they are made, and how the French use them, I know you'll love our full post The French Market Basket: A Timeless Tradition. The post also shares lots of my photos taken of basket sellers at weekend markets from across France.

The French Market Basket: A Timeless Tradition

Annette at Guingamp wearing her French market basket in summer

French Market Baskets: A Timeless Tradition

Few objects are as effortlessly chic and as deeply functional as the French market basket and going to local markets shopping with my basket was one of the early traditions that I fully embraced on moving to our village home in regional Côtes-d'Armor in Brittany. After years of imagining myself going to locals markets buying strawberries, cheese, bread and flowers if I bought a house in France, when I actually did buy my dream home, buying a french market basket was top of my dreamy French lifestyle to-do list.

Women, and men, all across France regularly use market baskets during their daily activities. Whether used around the home, strapped onto a bicycle or used in the timeless tradition of going to market, they are as quintessentially French as a baguette or croissant. Woven from palm leaves or straw and finished with leather handles, they are equally at home slung over a shoulder at the local market or resting gracefully by the front door filled with blooms, fresh produce, or everyday essentials.

I now have a few French market baskets in both of my homes in Brittany and Newcastle (Australia), and I honestly could not be without them. They come with me to the market and I have them around the house as indispensable hold-alls for spare linen and towels in the guest rooms, extra produce from the market that doesn't need to go in the fridge, and for the twigs and small logs I keep beside the fireplace. There is something about a French market basket that makes even the most simple task of shopping easier and feel a little more fun. Classic paniers (woven basket bags) are as chic as they are practical and timeless. See our home and enjoy village country life over on Instagram here with us.

French Tea Salons – Salon de thé

French tea salons - Étang Neuf - l'atelier de le Étang Neuf - Summer garden with hydrangeas

French Tea Salons - Salon de thé

Visiting a French tea salon or salon de thé, is a wonderful experience and one that I recommend if you enjoy drinking tea, coffee or hot chocolate, and have the opportunity whilst you travel. Tea time in France is known as le Goûter, and is typically an afternoon snack time taken between 4pm and 6pm.

At tea time or le Goûter in France you can typically expect to indulge in pastries rather than savoury food such as finger sandwiches as in a typical British teatime. Pain au chocolat, tarts, cannelés, madeleines or macarons are popular at French tea time.

The more formal tea time, such as in French tea salons or salon de Thé, may be a little more British inspired with cakes, cookies or desserts along with the full service of tea.

While tea is enjoyed, coffee (espresso or French press) and hot chocolate are just as common. The French tend to prefer tisanes and lightly scented teas (such as Jasmine or Earl Grey) rather than the strong, milk-heavy black teas typical in Britain.

Living in the French Countryside Part II – Going to a Vide-Grenier

Living in the French Countryside Part II - Going to a Vide-Grenier

My Journal of living in the French countryside

Going to a vide-grenier, which is also known as a boot sale, flea market or garage sale in other countries, is one of the joys of living in France. Along with flakey buttery croissants, endless cheese choices and stunning chateaux to explore, spending a few hours at a vide-grenier is a quintessential French way of life. "Vide-grenier" literally translates to "empty attic" and that's pretty much what people do, they empty their attic or garage. Locals bring their unwanted goods and chattels and display them, usually on tables, or laid out on the ground, for others to buy and take home immediately.

My 'Living in the French Countryside' journal series shares my everyday experiences of living in France, small memorable events, and big new experiences. I capture them all in my journal writings. It's honest everyday stuff, authentic and hopefully entertaining for you. Who knows, maybe it will inspire you to make the move to France also.

Gentle Pastimes

Gentle Pastimes

Busy lives are rather the norm now for many of us trying to fit into each day the demands of family live, work commitments, helping others as we are able and, of course if we can, a little time to ourselves to wind down or enjoy our hobbies. Over this Easter holiday, with more time to relax and think, my thoughts were drawn to how our hobbies and passionate pastimes shape our lives or help us through difficult times. What do they say about us? How do they add to the fabric of our lives?

2026 has for me been a very different year so far, and gentle pastimes have played an important role in keeping healthy. Many of our regular followers may know that our family decided to spend the winter months at our French second home 'maison secondaire' and leave the hot dry Australian summer behind. We were very much looking forward to spending another cold winter, hopefully with snow, and experiencing the joy of Christmas and New Year in our tiny farming village.

French Subscription Box June Edition – Opened and Revealed

June French Subscription Box Gifts Revealed

This first box is a very special one that was created just for our lovely customers during this extraordinary time of isolation and uncertainty when it's been important to stay at home when we can, keep ourselves healthy and find activities that relax us. That’s why we themed it ‘Rejuvenate & Take Care’.

So now that all our ladies have received their box and opened it, I'm delighted to reveal the items included in the June box and share a bit of the story behind the designers, company owners and French background of each of the products.

Essential Elements of French Country Cottage Style Decorating

French country cottage decorating style

Decorating your home in a French country cottage style is very popular and while there are essential elements to achieving this style there is also plenty of scope to customise and personalise your home in the look of a French country cottage style.

French Country Cottage Style Decorating is Easy

Before we look at the essential elements of this style, let’s consider what the mountain chalets of Alsace, country homes of Normandy, coastal apartments of Cote d’Azur and family chateaux throughout France all have in common?

Well, they’re all someone’s home where they live, love, entertain and maybe work from, just the same as your home and mine. We fill our homes with the necessary, the precious and the sentimental to create our very own living space. Creating a home, even if following a particular style, should always be about what feels you with joy and works for your family’s needs. (Read more about my home in France)

Annette Charlton

Annette lives with her family between their homes in France and Australia. She’s been featured in International magazines including French Property News, on numerous blogs and travel websites and appeared on ABC National Radio. You can connect on Instagram or Facebook.

www.afrenchcollection.com

French House Chic by Jane Webster

Jane Webster the amazing and courageous Australian who swapped her suburban Melbourne life to that of château owner in rural Normandy, France has just released her elegant new book French House Chic.

French House Chic is described as “a glimpse inside the most private of French residences: from supremely elegant Parisian apartments to lavishly upholstered sitting rooms in French country estates” (French House Chic) and is a natural sequel to Jane’s bestselling books At My French Table and French Ties.

Annette Charlton