Close your eyes and step back 200 hundred years and imagine a marketplace full of amazing smells and bright fabrics and products and then find your way back to today and there you have the wonderful Loughborough Continental Christmas Market. A place where traders come and offer their goods for sale; goods which embody their own cultural and historic knowledge and the authenticity they hold precious to the market as a cultural institution.

Photo courtesy of The Market People
Loughborough is a small, thriving market town in the heart of the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire and home to the Loughborough University, where thousands of international students come each year to further their education at this internationally prestigious educational institution.
Home to the Charnwood Museum and Loughborough Carillon, Loughborough has many interesting tourist attractions such as the John Taylor Bellfoundry Museum and the fascinating All Saints Church and the Old Rectory Museum.

Photo courtesy of Bruce Vandersluis Images
Complementing the Loughborough Christmas Lights Switch-On ceremony which commences at 1 pm on Sunday 26 November 2017, the Loughborough Continental Christmas Market will be located in the Loughborough Market Place, and will run each day from 9 am to 5.30 pm from Friday 24 November to Sunday 26 November 2017.
There will be a range of large and colourful stalls selling a range of unusual food items such as fine cheese from Le Specialiste du Fromage, sensational garlic prawns from Terre et Mer and the finest cured meat from French Comte. Then there is the market's own French baker with freshly baked bread and goods prepared right on the market in a large mobile oven. Enjoy the delights of baguettes, croissants and pain-au-chocolate or maybe even a crunchy yet airy pain noix or a mille-feuille.

Photo courtesy of The Market People
If French food is not for you, then you can also enjoy a paella from Spain or stollen from Germany amongst a large range of other incredible delights.

Photo courtesy of The Market People
Beyond the food stalls, there is a large range of stalls showcasing the beauty of international craft traditions including bowls and ornaments carved from Moroccan marble, Baltic amber set into handcrafted jewellery, finely woven Italian clothing and rugs and throws from Morocco and Turkey.

Photo courtesy of The Market People
Entry is free. For more information please see the
website or
Facebook event.