The Grand Marché is Fort-de-France's central covered market, a sprawling covered space that functions as the most authentic slice of Martiniquan commercial life in the capital. Vendors in madras-pattern headscarves sell produce, spices, craft goods, and prepared food across multiple levels of a 19th-century iron pavilion.
The ground level handles fresh produce — breadfruit, christophine, plantains, fresh herbs, and the aromatic colombo spice mix central to Martiniquan cooking. Upstairs you find the craft vendors: woven baskets, clay cooking pots, bottles of rhum agricole from small distilleries, vanilla pods, and the madras fabric that defines the island's traditional costume. Go on a Saturday morning when it is at its liveliest, and plan to eat — several stalls serve hot Creole food, and the boudin (blood sausage spiced with hot peppers and allspice) from the sausage vendors is excellent.