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.