We went to the Foire Saint-Luc at Gavray on Sunday. The autumn agricultural fairs here don’t compare to the county shows in England or the enormous regional fairs in the US but they are a very important event on the calendar of rural France and some of them date back hundreds of years.
In Manche, the ‘foire season’ starts with the oldest one at Lessay, mid-way down the Cotentin peninsula. Lessay fair is usually mid-September and we’re typically too busy with guests to get there. In October - amongst others - there’s Gavray, Etouvy and, to finish things off, the big November fair in the centre of the town of Saint-Hilaire-du-Harcouët - when the centre of the town is closed off to vehicles and plays host to in excess of 200,000 visitors.
For us, these foires have two major benefits: the first is to enable us to buy large quantities of onions, garlic and shallots (well priced and excellent quality) for use in chutneys and other conserves and as a lunch destination! Of which, more in my next post.
And looking at vast displays of unfeasibly large pumpkins and squashes is also oddly compulsive. And then there’s the man who carves pumpkins into works of art... of which, more later...
