Before we went to Paris we read as much info as we could get and had time for. In several places we read about the open markets of Paris and that Parisians do a bulk of their weekly fresh grocery buying in these markets. An open market is not a new concept to us. In Mexico City there are thousands of these ambulatory markets that set up one day a week in a neighborhood, some larger than others. In our neighborhood we have a tianguis (tee-AHN-geese) that sets up a short block away from our house. You can buy vegetables, fruit, meat, there's a stand or two of clothes and toys and one of household goods like plastic market bags, strainers, and colanders. At the opposite end of ours is the "restaurant section": stands where movable restaurants have set up in which you can get all kinds of tacos, tlacoyos, sopes, tostadas of everything from tinga to fried shark. So, we wanted to see the Parisian version.
The open market in the Vaugirard neighborhood sets up on Convention street, a tree lined boulevard (our tianguis sets up on a tree-lined boulevard). The open market, however, did not block off any part of the street and so was situated on both sides of the street and was much larger than our tianguis, extending far up the street. It was beginning to drizzle as we walked to the market which made it somehow more cozy, more romantic (which would probably have made the locals laugh their heads off if they had known my thoughts about their market), but don't we always see some everyday things set in certain "foreign" places in this light? Some of my romantic notions were squashed when I saw pretty much the same type of stuff one sees for sale on makeshift stands in Mexico: a table of CDs (though I wish now I had bought one of early era Parisian music), one of socks and stockings, a costume jewelry/watch vendor (but nothing very interesting), plastic kitchen wares, pretty much the usual just in a very distant place so my initial reaction was, oh, phooey, not much different. Then we hit the food section and it changed. Not that vegetables are very different and Mexico has some unusual fruit available for sale, but I think that "what" is for sale for everyday use tells you something about a people, what attracts them (huge would be my guess and colorful), and what their diet is like (varied and expensive. There were some unusual tomatoes (photo in Smilebox) that at first we thought to be small pumpkins. There were stands of different types of garlic, fresh garlic.
There were displays of mushrooms of many different types, sizes and colors. We had hoped to buy a roast chicken for our supper but they were too expensive. We also wanted to sample some different types of cheese so we found the large stand of the cheese vendor and began to look. Having found several cheeses we wanted to try we geared up for the task of actually buying them. The lady nearest us seemed to be hoping either her sister or brother would finish with their transactions first but finally decided that she was the one who would have to deal with us. By this time we already knew the answer to our question of "Anglais? Español?" but asked anyway just to let her know that we didn't speak French, in case she had any doubts about the possibility. But this time we did have the amount written down of what we wanted to purchase on a scrap piece of paper in grams which must have been a trifling amount judging by her face. But we all managed to point, weigh and purchase the cheese and say with enthusiasm, "Merci!" so that she had no doubt that we appreciated her putting up with tourists (and the only ones, I might add).
We crossed the street and proceeded through heavier rain down the block. There was a tiny stand in which a man and his wife were selling a few knives and their big seller, judging its status by it's separate tiny, high pedestal, a set of scissors with about six blades on eash side. It looked like someone had glued several pairs of scissors together. Seeing our interest the owner immediately went into action showing us how quickly this ingenious aparatus could "chop" parsley. It was fun to watch but, living in Mexico for 25 years, such things always pass through my filter of "how will I wash that to get all germs and parasites off and how long will it take to dry COMPLETELY before I will use it agan?" Then we came to a stand in which they sell clothes. Nothing unusual about that or even about the size of the clothes but this time I have a daughter-in-law who sometimes has to buy things from the children's department to find clothes that fit and judging by the tiny little women I had seen on the streets I thought I might find something suitable for her, a Parisian dress! Of course, people are the same in some ways everywhere, so the dresses were actually Italian (tells you something else about what attracts the people of a country). I found one that looked like a young French girl might wear in the summer and sized it up as to whether it would fit Shadai (it did, like it was made for her). With purchases in plastic bags we headed back to the apartment to make our bag lunch and head to the metro. We were spending this very wet day inside, in the Louvre.
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