Around a week ago, I saw information in a newsletter about events going on in November and the carrot market piqued my interest. I had heard of the Bern Onion Market but never this carrot market. As I had the day off I decided to check it out with my husband.
The information on the website recommended travelling to Aarau by train, as they expect around 30,000 visitors to the market. We, however, decided to drive as it would be much quicker. On the Swiss Family Fun website, I had read the recommendation to park at the station, so this was where we aimed to park.
In arrival in Aarau, we started to see signs for the Rüeblimärt parking, so decided to follow these. They lead us round the outside of the town to an open parking area, where people were waiting to show us where to park. We were surprised that the car park still had a lot of space. We had passed a couple of other car parks that were full or almost full on route. There was no charge for parking at this official car park.
Once we left the car park, it wasn’t really obvious which direction we should walk, we just followed other people who were leaving the car park. It was really quiet which surprised us.
We started seeing a few more people walking in the same direction and also people walking in the opposite direction with shopping bags. After a walk up a steep hill we arrived at the start of the market.
We were amazed how busy the market area was. Where had all these people come from?
We very slowly made our way along the main row of stalls, looking at the displays of carrots and other vegetables.
Some stalls had artistic displays. There was an award for the best decorated stall which could be voted for on the website.
We managed to make our way up to the end of the main row of stalls, but hadn’t found the stall selling gluten free bakery products that we were looking for.
I checked on the website to see if I could find out where the stall was. The map also showed the areas where the other stalls were.
I eventually managed to locate the stall we were looking for and luckily it wasn’t far from where we were. After looking at the range of bakery products we bought 2 small bread rolls and a bag of mini gugelhupf. Our daughter was very pleased when I sent a picture to her.
There were lots of carrot based food products available but also lots of other articles with carrots on them. We tasted a carrot pesto and a carrot and apricot chutney that was made by a local women’s group, who had their own stall.
We made our way back down the main row and came across angel wings made out of sliced carrot.
We chose to walk down the parallel street to see the other row of stalls. It was much quieter in this street.
When we got to the bottom of the street we decided to have a bit of a wander around Aarau old town, having heard that it was really pretty.
We came across lots of lovely buildings with decorated facades and the undersides of the roofs. It was amazing how quiet the town was away from the market. You would not have know that there were so many people just round the corner.
We came across the church where they were going to be playing ‘carrot music’. Unfortunately we couldn’t stay long enough to listen.
On the way back towards the car we even found a cafe which had carrots hanging outside which had a special carrot based menu for the day.
Arriving back at the car park, we were surprised to see that there was still space in the car park, but around 20 coaches had arrived. That explains where a lot of the people had come from.
The trip home was also really easy with no traffic.
The Rüeblimärt was definitely worth a visit but having seen it we probably wouldn’t go again, unless we had visitors who wanted to visit. I would however go back to have a better look round Aarau old town.
I would suggest not going to the market with a pushchair, wheelchair or dogs as it was so busy. Also expect not to be able to move quickly, as people were constantly stopping to look at stalls in the middle of the walkway. It was interesting to see the number of varieties of carrots that were available and the interesting ways that carrots had been used in other products.
From a planning point of view, there were toilets in various places in the market and they could easily be found on the map.
Here is the link to the website from 2025:
Crouch Family On Tour 