Le Marché
Australia's largest gathering of French food and craft sets up in a cottage garden on Penshurst Street one Sunday a month.
About this market
Solveig Coulon moved to Australia from France and could not find the thing she missed most, which was not any single food but the Sunday habit of buying it outdoors from the person who made it. Le Marche is her answer. Willoughby City Council, which features her in its Support Local program, describes the market as offering Australia's largest selection of French food and crafts, and by the council's account she has been running it for about five years.
A rotation, not a residency
The most common mistake people make with Le Marche is assuming it lives in one place. It does not. The market moves around Sydney through the month, and Willoughby is its fourth Sunday. That single fact explains almost every scheduling disagreement you will find online: a listing quoting a first or second Sunday is describing a different site in the same rotation, not a different schedule for this one. At Willoughby the market runs 9am to 1.30pm in the grounds of Laurelbank Cottage, and the season runs February to November.
Market at a glance
What is on the tables is genuinely French rather than French-themed: baked goods, artisan cheeses, perfumes, photography and textiles. Alongside them Coulon deliberately makes room for small Australian producers, so local honey, marmalades and fruit and vegetables from nearby farms sit next to the imported end of the range. The setting does a lot of work too. Laurelbank is a cottage with a garden rather than a hall or a car park, which keeps the whole thing at village scale.
Le Marche pulls shoppers from the Southern Highlands, the Central Coast and Newcastle, which for a monthly market in a suburban cottage garden means people are driving upwards of two hours each way for cheese.
Good to know before you go
Ten markets a year is not many, so the date matters more here than at a weekly market. There is no December or January session, and the year restarts in February. Arrive closer to 9am than to 1pm if you are shopping rather than grazing, because the bakery and charcuterie stalls are the ones that sell out, and 4.5 hours is a short window once a queue forms. Bring a bag and something to keep cheese cool on the drive home. The grounds are lawn and garden rather than sealed surface, so flat shoes beat good ones after rain. If you want to trade rather than shop, stallholder enquiries go through the organiser directly.
Frequently Asked Questions
- When is Le Marche at Willoughby on?
- The fourth Sunday of the month, 9am to 1.30pm, at Laurelbank Cottage on Penshurst Street. The Willoughby season runs from February through to November.
- Is this the same market that runs at other Sydney locations?
- Yes. Le Marche rotates around several Sydney sites across the month, and Willoughby is the fourth Sunday of that rotation. Listings that quote a different Sunday are usually describing one of the other locations.
- Can I bring my dog?
- Yes. The cottage grounds are open lawn and garden, and dogs are a normal part of the crowd.