Celebrating the Sacré Festival in France

This weekend is the Sacré Festival. There are stations set up around downtown where you can see theatrical performances from local interest groups from Niort, the town where I’m teaching English to my host family. There was also a magic show that I quickly avoided once I noticed that the magician was picking people out of the crowd to poke fun of or to participate in his performance.

In 2013, a clown in Mexico used me as the butt of every joke he made for a solid 5 minutes at a children’s Christmas party; taking advantage of the fact that I had very limited Spanish skills and wouldn’t be able to understand any of the jokes he was making. I quickly high-stepped it away from a public-shaming that might scar me for life and made my way to a place that I had passed many times before, Place des Halles.

I had no idea that inside this wonderful glass-domed warehouse-looking building, that I would find the loveliest farmer’s market. Everything in there was fresh and appetizing. There were so many different cheese and characuterie stands that I thought I had passed the same ones twice, but found myself in a different corner of the building. I made a promise to myself that I was only going to spend the coins that I had in my purse, none of my paper money; boy did that go far!

You could buy tiny pieces of cheese for less than a euro each and a baguette for less than 2 euros. With 6 euros, you could try three types of cheese, eat a loaf of bread, buy a pastry and have a cup of coffee. This place may nickel and dime me into poverty!