Agen Christmas Market

On Boulevard de la République, between the Quatre Feux crossroads and Place Castex, a dozen wooden chalets set out in a staggered pattern set the festive tone in the centre of Agen. Run by the town's shopkeepers and craftspeople, the Agen Christmas market brings together makers from across the south-west, with the ice rink and food chalets set up a little further along on Place Foch. As the world capital of the prune, the prefecture of the Lot-et-Garonne leans into local treats and a neighbourhood feel, a few minutes from the Garonne and its famous canal bridge.

The chalets on Boulevard de la République

The market sits on the pedestrian stretch of Boulevard de la République, the main shopping street in the centre. The chalets run from the Quatre Feux crossroads to the edge of Place Castex, staggered along the shop fronts. The edition organised by the Union des commerçants et artisans agenais brings together a dozen wooden huts, a compact format that favours direct contact with the craftspeople and producers. You go from a maker's stand to a local producer's stall in a few steps, and the short distances make the stroll easy even with children or a pushchair.

Everything is open during the day, from mid-morning until early evening, which leaves time to do your shopping without rushing. Lights dress the boulevard and the neighbouring streets of the Pin district, one of the town's historic shopping hubs. Around it you find the façades of old Agen, its half-timbered houses and the red brick typical of the region, all the way to Saint-Caprais cathedral, a few streets away. The pedestrian layout, a legacy of the boulevard's redesign, makes the visit pleasant and accessible to people with reduced mobility along most of the route.

The initiative comes first and foremost from the shopkeepers. The traders' associations of the town centre and the Pin district set up the market, relying on makers and producers based in the département and neighbouring areas. The chalets are rented by the week or fortnight, sometimes shared between two, so stallholders rotate and the line-up changes a little from one weekend to the next. Depending on the day, you meet jewellers, woodturners, soap makers and regional producers, with the direct contact that gives a small neighbourhood market its charm. It is also a chance to leave with gifts off the usual track, made or grown close by.

Treats at the Agen Christmas market: prunes take centre stage

You can't talk about Agen without starting with the prune. The ente plum, dried to become the Agen prune, comes in every form here: plain, filled with prune cream, coated in chocolate, soaked in Armagnac or flavoured with wine. Lot-et-Garonne producers have made it a speciality known far beyond the region, and the festive season is the moment to leave with gift boxes for the Christmas Eve table. Alongside, south-west cooking holds its own: foie gras, duck breast, tourtière landaise with apple and Armagnac, crisp croustade and confit fill the producers' stalls.

The prune deserves a moment, because it tells the story of the area. The ente plum, a variety grown on the Lot-et-Garonne hillsides, is picked ripe and then dried in ovens so it keeps all winter; that drying is what gives the soft prune we know. Producers at the market often offer tastings and are happy to talk harvests and sizes with anyone curious. Leaving with a box of filled prunes or a bottle of prune cream means taking a piece of the region home in your bag.

For drinks, the local wines are worth a stop: Buzet and Côtes du Brulhois, two appellations from the département, go well with festive meals, while Floc de Gascogne is sipped as an aperitif. On Place Foch, the food chalets complete the tour with sugar-dusted chichis, crêpes, roasted chestnuts and a steaming mulled wine to warm up between two sessions on the ice. If you want to keep the mood going at home, a good mulled wine recipe with spices and orange does half the job.

• Agen prunes in every form: plain, filled, in chocolate, with Armagnac or wine, the town's signature product.
• South-west classics: foie gras, duck breast, confit and tourtière landaise with Armagnac, enough to set the Christmas Eve table.
• Croustade agenaise, a fine golden pastry shared at the end of a meal.
• Buzet and Brulhois wines, plus Floc de Gascogne as an aperitif, all made in and around the Lot-et-Garonne.
• Chichis, crêpes, roasted chestnuts and mulled wine on Place Foch, served next to the ice rink.

Ice rink, Father Christmas and events: the festive programme

Place Foch is where the family attractions are. The ice rink welcomes young and old, with late sessions at the end of the week and a modest price per session. Nearby, on Boulevard de la République, the Fabrique du Père Noël offers creative workshops, storytelling, shows and a photo booth, with visits from Father Christmas on several weekends in December. A small Christmas train runs through the centre on certain days, and parades liven up the streets a few times during the month.

The ice rink opens in the evening at the end of the week, with cheap sessions that keep teenagers and children busy for a good while. December weekends pack in most of the events: Father Christmas visits for photos, rides on the little train through the centre and parades up the boulevard on a few dates. If you are coming with young children, a Saturday or Sunday afternoon gives you the best chance of catching an event in progress.

As for dates, the previous edition ran from early to late December for the market, with the ice rink open until the very beginning of January. For winter 2026, the programme is still to be confirmed by the Ville d'Agen and the traders' association, which usually publish dates and times in the autumn. Allow one to two hours to go round the chalets and Place Foch, more if you add a skating session or a workshop at the Fabrique du Père Noël.

Getting to the Agen Christmas market and sights nearby

By train, Agen station is about ten minutes' walk from Boulevard de la République, on the Bordeaux, Toulouse and Paris line. It is the easiest way to avoid town-centre parking on December Saturdays. By car, several car parks ring the old centre, including those near Place du Pin and the quays; it is best to arrive early at weekends, when the crowds build. As the boulevard is pedestrian, you leave the car on the edge of the area and walk to the chalets.

Once there, Agen lends itself to a full day out. The Musée des Beaux-Arts, housed in several Renaissance mansions, holds paintings by Goya and a fine collection of art, perfect for a warm visit between December showers. West of town, the Garonne canal bridge spans the river for more than five hundred metres, making it the country's longest masonry structure of its kind, and a popular walk along the Canal latéral. And if rugby is your thing, the town remains a stronghold of SU Agen, whose history still runs through the neighbourhoods around the Stade Armandie.

The Garonne, which flows through town, offers pleasant walks along its redeveloped quays, and the fresh food market in the centre is worth a look to spot Lot-et-Garonne producers before loading up the boot. The département, with its vineyard slopes, plum orchards and brick villages, is well suited to a two-day getaway if you want to stretch your Christmas weekend beyond the chalets.

To extend the weekend, the region has no shortage of Christmas events. The Montauban Christmas market is about forty minutes away, the Toulouse Christmas market and its big wheel just over an hour, and the Bordeaux Christmas market completes a tour between the Garonne and the vineyards.