Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
I tend to cheat and use a universal short cut. I buy
where I see the largest number of French women buying.
Price haggling isn't done in these markets, at least not
until around 1:30 pm when the merchants usually
pack up for lunch themselves. Then, in order to get
rid of perishable produce, they will mark down certain
remaining items.
The Food Hawkers
The tide of humanity has opted for the predictability and convenience
of giant department store and supermarket complexes in the
international we-have-everything-packaged-up-and-sealed-for-your-
protection-and-convenience mould.
Here is how Rudolph Chelminski describes the French antidote
to such uniformity:
“These market food-hawkers are a very special race, both the men
and the women: hangovers from the Middle Ages who mix commerce,
theatre and social commentary in an ongoing chatter that is designed
as much to amuse and entertain as to sell. Like
chansonniers
, the
best ones can draw crowds when they are performing well. For some
curious reason which I have never been able to fathom, the stars of
the trade, the ones most thoroughly infected with
joie de vivre
(and,
I suspect,
joie de boire
) are invariably the vegetable and i sh people.
Butchers are vastly more reserved, as bei ts millionaires, as are the
B.O.F. (
beurre-oeufs-fromage
) ladies, silently dignii ed in their white
smocks, and the tripe dealers—the offal organ grinders, as they are
known around my house—tend to lurk in the shadows at the back of
their sinister shops, amid their treasured collections of ears and snouts
and lungs and intestines and pancreases and other unmentionables
which the French know how to make edible. When a vegetable man
is in good form, his voice and imagination fueled by a few litres of
antifreeze, the merits of his radishes, celeries or artichokes become
positively epic, possessing every virtue known to humankind and
instantly available at a miraculous price, which would be even lower
if it were not for those criminals who run the government.”
—from
The French at Table
An important part of this outdoor entertainment is
customer/seller exchange. Even if it's just a comment
about the fruit, be sure to speak with that vegetable man. The
variety and richness of a French outdoor market is positively
sensual, and a l irtatious spirit pervades.
These merchants are professionals, in the true French
sense. They love what they are selling and they love selling
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