Bonsecours Market in Montreal

5 January 2023 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Shopping Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Gribeco/cc-by-2.5

© Gribeco/cc-by-2.5

Bonsecours Market (French: Marché Bonsecours), at 350 rue Saint-Paul in Old Montreal, is a two-story domed public market. For more than 100 years, it was the main public market in the Montreal area. It also briefly accommodated the Parliament of United Canada for one session in 1849. Named for the adjacent Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, it opened in 1847. During 1849 the building was used for the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. The market’s design was influenced by Dublin‘s Customs House. Bonsecours Market was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1984.   read more…

Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert in Brussels

17 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Shopping Reading Time:  6 minutes

© flickr.com - William Murphy/cc-by-sa-2.0

© flickr.com – William Murphy/cc-by-sa-2.0

The Royal Saint-Hubert Galleries (French: Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert, Dutch: Koninklijke Sint-Hubertusgalerijen) is an ensemble of three glazed shopping arcades in central Brussels, Belgium. It consists of the Galerie du Roi or Koningsgalerij (“King’s Gallery”), the Galerie de la Reine or Koninginnegalerij (“Queen’s Gallery”) and the Galerie des Princes or Prinsengalerij (“Princes’ Gallery”). The galleries were designed and built by the architect Jean-Pierre Cluysenaer between 1846 and 1847, and precede other famous 19th-century European shopping arcades, such as the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan and The Passage in Saint Petersburg. Like them, they have twin regular facades with distant origins in Vasari‘s long narrow street-like courtyard of the Uffizi in Florence, with glazed arched shopfronts separated by pilasters and two upper floors, all in an Italianate Cinquecento style, under an arched glass-paned roof with a delicate cast-iron framework. The complex was designated a historic monument in 1986.   read more…

La Rambla in Barcelona

4 December 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Shopping Reading Time:  9 minutes

© Sergi Larripa/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Sergi Larripa/cc-by-sa-3.0

La Rambla is a street in central Barcelona. A tree-lined pedestrian street, it stretches for 1.2 km (0.75 mi) connecting the Plaça de Catalunya in its center with the Christopher Columbus Monument at Port Vell. La Rambla forms the boundary between the neighbourhoods of the Barri Gòtic to the east and the El Raval to the west. La Rambla can be crowded, especially during the height of the tourist season. Its popularity with tourists has affected the character of the street, which has shifted in composition to pavement cafes and souvenir kiosks. It has also suffered from the attention of pickpockets. The Spanish poet Federico García Lorca once said that La Rambla was “the only street in the world which I wish would never end.” La Rambla can be considered a series of shorter streets, each differently named, hence the plural form Les Rambles (the original Catalan form; in Spanish it is Las Ramblas). The street is successively called:   read more…

Mercato Centrale in Florence

25 September 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon appétit, Shopping Reading Time:  3 minutes

Mercato Centrale, built in 1874 by Giuseppe Mengoni © Txllxt TxllxT/cc-by-sa-4.0

Mercato Centrale, built in 1874 by Giuseppe Mengoni © Txllxt TxllxT/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Mercato Centrale (English: Central Market) in Florence is located between via dell’Ariento, via Sant’Antonino, via Panicale and Piazza del Mercato Centrale. It is one of the results from the time of risanamento, the period when Florence was the capital of Italy in the late nineteenth century. It was designed by Giuseppe Mengoni, an architect who also conceived the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan.   read more…

Vanha kauppahalli in Helsinki

29 June 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon appétit, Shopping Reading Time:  3 minutes

© Diego Delso/cc-by-sa-3.0

© Diego Delso/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Vanha kauppahalli (english: Old Market Hall) is the first and oldest market and department store in Helsinki. The Vanha kauppahalli was opened in 1888. The building was designed by Gustaf Nystrom. Today the hall is also a popular tourist attraction.   read more…

Keong Saik Road in Singapore

23 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon appétit, Shopping Reading Time:  6 minutes

© Jacklee/cc-by-sa-4.0

© Jacklee/cc-by-sa-4.0

Keong Saik Road is a one-way road located in Chinatown within the Outram Planning Area in Singapore. The road links New Bridge Road to Neil Road, and is intersected by Kreta Ayer Road. Keong Saik Road was named in 1926 after the Malacca-born Chinese businessman, Tan Keong Saik, in remembrance to his contribution to the Chinese community.   read more…

Yiwu in Central Zhejiang Province

16 May 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Shopping Reading Time:  8 minutes

Park on the river © Cherubby/cc-by-sa-3.0

Park on the river © Cherubby/cc-by-sa-3.0

Yiwu is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Jinhua in Central Zhejiang Province, East China. As of the 2020 census, the city had 1,859,390 inhabitants and its built-up (or metro) area, joined with that of the neighboring Dongyang, was home to 2,947,340 inhabitants. The city is famous for its light industry commodity trade and vibrant market and as a regional tourist destination.   read more…

Smorgasburg in New York City

27 April 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Bon appétit, New York City, Shopping Reading Time:  4 minutes

Dumbo © flickr.com - dumbonyc/cc-by-sa-2.0

Dumbo © flickr.com – dumbonyc/cc-by-sa-2.0

Smorgasburg is an open-air food market that originated in Williamsburg, Brooklyn next to the East River. It takes place every Saturday in an empty lot. The name Smorgasburg is a portmanteau of “Smörgåsbord” and “Williamsburg”. Dozens of vendors sell their food and wares. It initially was started in 2011, by Jonathan Butler and Eric Demby as an offshoot of Brooklyn Flea.   read more…

Los Angeles Farmers Market

11 February 2022 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Greater Los Angeles Area, Bon appétit, Shopping Reading Time:  6 minutes

The Original Farmers Market sign © JS2PR/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Original Farmers Market sign © JS2PR/cc-by-sa-4.0

The Original Farmers Market is an area of food stalls, sit-down eateries, prepared food vendors, and produce markets in Los Angeles, California, California, at the corner of Fairfax Avenue and 3rd Street. First opened in July 1934, it is also a historic Los Angeles landmark and tourist attraction. The Original Farmers Market features more than 100 vendors, including ready-to-eat foods, grocers, and tourist shops, and is located just south of Television City. Unlike most farmers’ markets, which are held only at intervals, The Original Farmers’ Market of Los Angeles is a permanent installation and is open seven days a week. The vendors serve many kinds of food, both American cuisine from local farmers and local ethnic foods from the many immigrant communities of Los Angeles, with many Latin American and Asian cuisines well represented.   read more…

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