Roughly the size of the city of Monaco, Rungis sits on the outskirts of Paris and attracts 18 million people a year. Over 12,000 employees sell 1.6 million tons of products per year. 7.1 billion Euros change hands each year as brokers select the best of the best for their clients. The market is open to the public, but you must have a special (and very expensive) license to purchase anything.

Each building on the “complex” houses a different product – flowers, plants, vegetables, fruits, beef, pork, chicken, etc. To give you an example, there are 14 different buildings selling fruits and vegetables, 7 selling dairy products, 13 for plants and flowers, and 9 for meat. And these are not small buildings. Roughly each the size of a football fields – or in some cases three – each building has a number of wholesalers. Business is done with a handshake, the old-fashioned way – since prices are never posted. Depending on how much you buy and how often you make purchases, the price can vary dramatically. Someone just starting out as a broker will pay top prices while those who have been doing this job for 20 years get fabulous deals.

It’s 4:50 AM on a Thursday morning as we board a bus for the 30 minute ride outside Paris. We step off the bus bleary eyed and don thin white lab coats and hats. They are required for all visitors. We look like a bunch of overweight cafeteria workers in the pre-dawn dark, bulky from all the layers underneath. It’s a balmy 45 degrees out, and we can see our morning breath hang in the air.

We begin at the fish building. As we open the door, a rather unappealing smell wafts out – something sure to wake us from our stupor. Even though it’s 5:30 AM, most of the fish has been sold already. It’s being packed up and shipped to destinations around the world – there’s a customs facility in the complex – and Paris. The fish arrives around 10:30 PM and if you want to buy anything, it’s best to arrive before 1 AM. 50% of the fish hails from French waters while the rest has been flown in from other exotic destinations.

Thankfully we leave the fish building and heat for the meat village. Here too you must be early. By 9:00 AM the vendors are cleaning up and heading home. Rumor has it at the end of each shift, you can eat off the floors because it’s so clean. The French have a thing for cleanliness and traceability here. Every single animal and every single cut of meat can be traced back to the owner. Each cut has a tag with the name of the animal, the farmer, the veterinarian, the parents and what it ate. No joke.

We casually stroll through the building that’s kept at four degrees (39 F) at all times. 100,000 tons of meat are sold each year – 50% cow, 20% veal, 30% lamb. Instead of being disgusted by the rows and rows of carcasses hanging from hook on the ceiling, I’m completely fascinated. All the animals are processed off site so what you see is quite beautiful. The vendors let us get up close, analyzing the anatomy and admiring their handy work. My stomach rumbles as it dreams of a big, fat steak.

Next we’re off to the largest part of the market – the fruits and vegetables. Vendors sell 950,000 tons of the stuff per year. The building we visit is huge and we wander in awe down the main aisle. Anything that’s in season anywhere in the world is here. The presentation is breathtakingly beautiful, making my mouth water. What I would have done for a flat of blond raspberries, some fraises des bois (wild strawberries) and porcini mushrooms. I hear our guide tell stories of the mushroom pavilion and it’s enough to make me want to sneak away from our group and pay a visit.

Our next stop leads us to a place slightly less smelly than the fish pavilion – the cheese building. Here we walk through crates and crates of cheeses, hard and soft, goat and cow, fresh and aged. I want to dive in. My eyes widen with awe as I watch one vendor moving a single wheel of cheese with a forklift. Evidently it’s too big for a human to carry. And then I see something rather strange – one vendor is hawking cases of Coke. Now why on earth are their soda vendors in a cheese building? Our guide tells us that cheese is quite seasonal. During winter, the cheese production slows dramatically. To supplement their income, some vendors resort to selling soda.

We wind up our tour at the flowers – all 22,000 square meters of them. The flowers used to come from the South of France but now 95% of all blooms come from Holland. The French say that the Dutch invented flowers – which is partially true since they can be credited with numerous hybrids. The flowers are fresh cut, packaged into bundles and deposited in buckets of water. The buckets are loaded onto trucks headed for Rungis. A bouquet of 20 roses here – in colors I never knew existed – runs 12 Euros. I stand for a moment in pure awe at the array of colors and varieties. I think I’m in heaven.

It’s now 9:15 AM. Our tour is over and it’s time to remove the white coats and hats. I’m surprised to learn that most restaurants in Paris don’t buy their products here. Instead, they use a supermarket-like chain because the hours are better. But I am happy to hear that the nicer restaurants do make purchases here. Chefs who are at the top of their game know Rungis holds the key to their success. When a chef is intent of providing the best seasonal products, this is the only place to come.

 For photos of today's tour, check out the new collection on my picture page.

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