Sara Mohr
FR 450
12/03/2015
Marché
des Capucins
Yesterday I officially moved out of my residence on Cours
de l’Yser. While debating whether
wearing my gloves to bed was really going to help with the attic-induced cold,
I thought about what I was going to miss from my old neighborhood. I didn’t realize that moving half a mile
northeast could so drastically change the route I take. I will no longer have a solid reason to buy
that kebab panini at 2am simply because I’ll walk right past the all-night
bakery. There is an upside, my new
apartment puts me out on Cours de la Somme on the far side of the Vivo Shop, so
I will never again have to walk past the man who always winks at me.
Unfortunately
though, I am now farther away from the Marché des Capucins. The market is open every day with extended
hours on Sundays, and I have been nearly every Sunday since I moved into the
residence. It’s a huge building with
dozens of fruit and vegetable venders, cheese and meat counters, and tiny
seafood restaurants with three or four tables each. My only problem with the market is its strong
oyster smell. After trying them with
other Erasmus in September, I can no longer stand the smell of saltwater
without imagining the gritty, slimy, sandy taste.
While I’ve only been going to the market for a few
months, it has clearly existed longer than my stay in Bordeaux; but I had no
idea it was over 250 years. The official
Marché des Capucins website states that the first weekly market was held on
October 2nd of 1749. The name
derives from the Capucins, a religious group that arrived in the neighborhood to
convert the population. Their robes had
a pointed hood, the translation in French:
a “capuce” (Marché des Capucins
(2)). Originally, the Les Capucins was
not a market at all, but a neighborhood and a group of people, currently called
Les Capucinards. The market arose from within this group and each family passed
their trade down by generation (Caro 1994).
M.
Caro discussed the importance of these generations in his Master’s thesis at
the University of Bordeaux in 1994. The
reconstruction of the market to its current state was to begin in 1995, and M.
Caro seems hesitant in his work to posit the future of this new reconstructed
market. His only direct statement about
the future is: “Les Capucins! The phenomenon has persisted for two
centuries, let’s hope that it continues through the 21st.”[1] (Caro 1994).
The
permanent building with which M. Caro would have been familiar had been
constructed in 1878 though the project began 15 years before the purchase of
the materials (Marché des Capucins (2)). The necessity of a market as large as
Capucins was due to big changes in Bordeaux’s population. Between 1851 and 1954 the population of
Bordeaux nearly quadrupled as the city drew men to work in its center. Before the markets arrived in full-force, the
producers sold to venders who then raised their prices to sell right back to
the producers and workers (Bonneau 2013).
It wasn’t until 1857 that the large expansion and familial passing down
of physical shops by Les Capucins began (Marché
des Capucins (2)). These “market
suburbs” in Bordeaux revitalized the coast and brought more people working and
vacationing to France’s South-West coast (Bonneau 2013).
Some tourist sites even suggest a
visit to the Marché des Capucins, recommending a view from above to fully
experience the market culture. One
website called the Marché des Capucins “the belly of Bordeaux,” though whether
that refers to its placement near the city’s center or its position as the
largest market in Bordeaux is uncertain.
In my experience, it is the best place to buy fresh food, and is definitely
less expensive than the supermarkets (Marché
des Capucins (1)). By the time I get
to the market around 11 or 12, the venders have already been selling for six
hours but are usually very nice.
Going
to the market is the best part about Sundays; something new or interesting
seems to happen every time. My first
trip was a bit like going into the animal barns at the State Fair. It’s obvious that everyone else knows what’s
going on, but you’re just walking around wondering what you just stepped
in. It took me a while to be assertive
enough about my place in line, and on one occasion I was mistaken for the child
of the guy next to me. The vender passed
over me for my payment until the man left and he realized I was still waiting.
The market is bustling and exciting when it’s open, and
is an interesting study in architecture during the daytime. However, unlike Rue St. Catherine, there’s no
reason to be in the neighborhood after dark, and there are few streetlights or
stores open. Bordeaux has many
historical monuments that are beautiful to behold in the daytime, but a little
creepy at night. The most
straightforward route from the Quai to my residence passed the Grand Cloche,
the immigration arch, and the Marché du Capucins. At two in the morning I’m not looking for
dark, abandoned, and silent; and I will say I prefer the more direct and better
lit route to my new apartment from the Quai.
Even though it’s creepy at night, I will miss the Marché
des Capucins. Access to groceries is
definitely different in Waverly, Iowa, and it will be quite the transition back
to Mensa food. I imagine that Waverly
has a farmer’s market, but as with the one in Cedar Rapids; I will likely not
have the motivation to get in my car to drive to a market. Because of my hesitation to take the time to
drive, I may have missed out on history in my own town. Reading through M. Caro’s thesis has given me
an appreciation for the years of work that have gone into the Marché des
Capucins. He includes a very poignant
statement on the importance of the market to the entire city of Bordeaux: “Seen from the inside, seen from the outside;
les Capucins and their merchants are a world that has marked an age, the memory
of Bordeaux cannot ignore this phenomenon, it’s a social fact” (Caro 1994).[2] When I return, I plan to seek out the Waverly
market, and compare it to my experience at the largest market in Bordeaux.
References
Bonneau,
Emmaneulle. “La banlieue maraîchère de
Bordeaux: Souvenirs d’un géographe.”
CaMBo.
Nov 2013: 20-21. Web.
Caro,
Olivier. Rue Elie Gintrac: Un regard sur la culture du marché des Capucins. Diss.
Université de Bordeaux 2, 1994. Print.
Marché des Capucins: The
Belly of Bordeaux. (1). Europeanbestdestinations.com. n.p.
Web. 01
Dec 2015.<http://www.europeanbestdestinations.com/travelguide/bordeaux/march%C3%
A9-des-capucins/>
Marché des Capucins: Le Ventre de Bordeaux.
(2). Marché des Capucins. n.p. Web. 01
Dec
2015.
<http://marchedescapucins.com/>
[1] Original Text “Les Capucins! Le phénomène persiste depuis deux siècles,
souhaitons qu’il se poursuivre au-delà du XXIe siècle.”
[2] Original text: “Vue de l’intérieur,
vue de l’extérieur; les Capucins et leurs marchands sont un monde qui a marqué
une époque, la mémoire de Bordeaux ne peut ignorer le phénomène, c’est un fait
social.”
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