Voila! Elmhurst is getting a French market

Elmhurst will experience a bit of Parisian “joie de vivre” this summer.

City aldermen have signed off on an agreement allowing Bensidoun USA to set up a new French market near the Elmhurst Art Museum for a one-year trial period. The weekly market is set to run on Sundays from the beginning of June through the end of October in a city parking lot at Park and Prospect avenues.

Bensidoun has developed a growing list of suburban open-air markets since the 1990s. The company’s venerable market in downtown Wheaton — the first to spring to life — has become a social event with a French twist.

Shoppers stroll among fresh-cut flowers and hanging baskets, with a pastry or coffee in hand. Farmers fill their booths with grapes that taste like cotton candy, crisp green beans, stalks of asparagus and Michigan cherries. On the sweeter side of things, the French nuns of St. Roger Abbey sell their chocolate tartlets and gourmet breads.

Elmhurst alderman authorized a license agreement with Bensidoun during Monday’s city council meeting as part of the consent agenda. Bensidoun will pay the city a $500 operating fee to use the municipal parking lot at 180 W. Park Ave. After the one-year trial, officials will decide whether to continue hosting the market.

Bensidoun will also open vendor registration solely to Elmhurst businesses at least four weeks before offering slots to vendors outside of city boundaries under the terms of the agreement.

Organizers identified the municipal lot as an ideal spot for the market because there’s an ample amount of surrounding public parking, according to a city report issued by the council’s public affairs and safety committee. The market also will not require street closures.

The agreement allows Bensidoun to operate the market from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays during the market season.