Friday 15th May

Thursday is market day and the whole town, normally quiet and peaceful is transformed.   If you wander into the square at six in the morning there are already stalls being erected, large umbrellas (parafour) going up and all manner of food and clothing and wine and toys and flowers appearing form the backs of vans.    The Café des Arts is busier than normal, but actually not always that much busier, it all depends.  If it is sunny many people like to sit at one of the other cafes which have more outdoor seating – you can never tell.

We do open earlier though, although most customers come in a rush between eleven and twelve.  Today it was steady and we managed to serve everyone with no problem, though the market did seem quite busy.  We are allowed to put a couple of tables and four chairs in front of our door on market day, but there is always a territorial fight with the stall-holders.  There is a lady who sells figs right outside our door, and we often have to ask her to move so that people can actually get in the door.  Today she hadn’t set up, but another stall-holder told me she would definitely be here later.

I put out our two tables and left her what I thought would be enough room for her stall.  By nine she still hadn’t arrived and we gradually spread ourselves out a bit.  She did not arrive and we served quite a few customers who wanted to be outside.  You never can tell what will sell, and just lately home-made scones are selling like, well like hot cakes actually.  And we sold out by twelve.  We also sold a few baguettes but there are many days when we do not, and as the ficelles we buy in the morning are stale by afternoon we take them home unsold and feed them to the ducks.  By one in the afternoon the market is over, stall holders are now fighting each other to get their vans as near their stalls as possible.  By two the last remnants have gone, the square is deserted and absolutely no litter remains to show there ever was a market at all.