Three times a year during the winter season, a trufle market takes place in the village of Villeneuve-Minervois : in December, January and February. The main variety which grows in France is the 'tuber melanosporum', the black trufle. Trufles ripen during the winter and the association of growers in the Aude organises a series of markets for their harvest. Villeneuve is one of the few villages selected to host a market.

On Saturday,15th January 2005 was held the second market of thie winter in the main street of Villeneuve. From before 8am, the traders organised their stands, selling other local produce in addition to the trufles. For about a couple of hours, the "commissaire", expert provided by the local chambre d'agriculture, examined visually and by smelling each trufle to be offered for sale. The trufles are almost black and roughly spherical ranging in size from about 2 cm diameter to somewhat larger than a golf ball. He snipped a very small piece of the outer covering, examined closely and checked the odour of each trufle before weighing them on a scale accurate to within 1 gram. This provides a guarantee of quality and protects purchasers from fraud.

The market at Villeneuve is arranged to give priority to private purchasers who get the first half an hour after opening of the sale before the trade purchasers can start. The market commences with a shot fired to give the go as eager purchasers are lined up in front of the rope preventing access to the stands. This should have been at 10h30 but such was the supply on offer that the commissaire didn't complete his task in time and the gun was fired about 10 minutes late.

The rush was really not too hectic but the buying activity was steady. The buyer selects his trufle(s) from the small heap in front of a seller. These are then weighed on an accurate balance and the price decided. A small trufle of about 2cm diameter weighing 14 grams cost 10 euros, equivalent to just over 700 euros per kilogram.

Up and down the street were placed display boards showing the story of this fungus, how it grows in symbiosis with the roots of certain varieties of trees, the different types which exist, the ways of finding them and even recipes for using them in the kitchen. A simple method is to place a trufle in an airtight jar with eggs for a day or so. The odour of the trufle penetrates the shells of the eggs which are then converted into a tasty omelette.