Autumn arrives with chrysanthemums, wild mushrooms, game, and a botanist's array of local apples. Tastings, book signings, and performances by street musicians add to the festive hubbub. Sides of lamb and goat are split and hung to show organs in situ , and olives glint like polished stones. Piles of eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers, next to trays of salt-dried capers and bottles of golden olive oil, will put you in the mood for caponata. For lunch, try a focaccia stuffed with innards and a gelato in brioche, the world's most remarkably lush ice cream sandwich.
Vendors arrive almost at dawn to erect their tables and tents, and depart shortly after lunch.
In between, they display a dazzling array of all the foods France is famous for, including artisanal cheeses, fresh and cured meats, woodlands of wild mushrooms, and a dieter's nightmare of tarts and breads. This staggering warehouse sprawl rises from the mists on the edge of the Sumidagawa River. Heaped with stacks of just about everything that swims, it is a whirlwind of activity. Most spectacular is the tuna hall, where fresh and frozen specimens are lined up like fighter planes on an airfield. In another hall are live shellfish, kept in vats of bubbling water.