Les Halles de Lyons, Lyons, France. Daily. Many identify Lyons as the culinary capital of France. The city is situated between France's richest agricultural areas, so this vast indoor market is packed with the most spectacular produce and mouthwatering smells. Local specialities include rosette, andouillette, quenelles,and handmade chocolates.
Vucceria Market, Palermo, Sicily. Every morning except Sunday.
A wonderful and chaotic market which stretches for miles. Its origins date back to the Saracen rule of Sicily in the ninth century and it's a spectacular, colourful, noisy event.
Viktualienmarkt, Munich, Germany. 7.30am to 6pm, Monday to Friday; 7.30am to 1pm Saturday.
Based in the heart of Munich, the Viktualienmarkt is rather up-market, selling an impressive selection of fine foods. In the summer there is a fantastic beer garden surrounding a maypole where you can sip wheat beer and eat Schweinswürstl mit Kraut (pork sausages with saurkraut).
The Old English Market, Cork, Ireland. All day, Monday to Saturday.
This indoor market dates back to 1610. Seek out small, indigenous cheese makers and the fresh fish. A speciality is the tripe (blended sheep offal in a sheep's stomach that has been boiled in milk) and drisheen (local blood sausage). The less adventurous can opt for hot buttered eggs.
Borough Market, London. Friday afternoon and all day Saturday.
Wholesale traders arrive here as early as 2am, followed by restaurateurs, grocers, and the general public a few hours later. 'London's larder' can be traced back to the Middle Ages, but it only began selling fine food recently, following a food lover's fair in 1998. Today, the market is awash with seasonal greens, wild mushrooms, Melton Mowbray pork pies, smoked eels, fresh shellfish, potted shrimps, cider, venison and wild boar.
Központi Vásárcsarnok, Central Market Hall, Budapest. Monday to Saturday.
The 19th-century, Art Nouveau building that was created to house this market was designed by Gustave Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower fame) and is itself something to gawk at. Stalls sell luxury goods like foie gras and Russian caviar, as well as staples.
Kauppatori Market Square, Helsinki, Finland. Monday to Saturday mornings, and summer afternoons.
The harbour setting and loving arrangement of the produce give this market a picture-postcard perfection. There is no haggling, but why be thrifty over cured reindeer meat, heaps of cloudberries, lingonberries and baskets of wild mushrooms? Visit in summer when the air is thick with the smell of lilac and lily of the valley.
Rue Mouffetard, 5th arrondissement, Paris, France. All day, Tuesday to Saturday.
Rue Mouffetard is near the Latin quarter of Paris, a lively student area. The market sells an eclectic range of food, fresh and speciality, along a road lined with buildings dating from the 12th century, giving the market a distinctly medieval atmosphere.
The Pescheria, Venice, Italy. Every morning except Sunday.
This fish market is tucked under the arches alongside the Rialto Bridge, but visitors can find it by spotting the gondolas arriving with produce. The most dramatic time to visit is in the early morning when the produce glitters as the sun rises. Later it livens up when locals barter with passion at stalls manned by sushi-standard fishmongers.
