State Fair, Paris Style

Some friends (Eric and Mireia) invited us and two other of their friends to the French agricultural fair, which is a big event held in Paris every spring.  I was very excited, mostly because I am a habitue of the Indiana State Fair and I was curious how the French fair would compare.  There were lots of similarities.  They had large pavilions with lots of livestock on display, as well as contests for best in class, prizes, auctions, demonstrations.  We saw sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle.  Here is a cow with several awards:

There were show dogs and cats of various breeds as well as working dogs, such as herders and police dogs.  In the same pavilion, there were vendors selling all kinds of fancy dog accessories and food.  (I got Sandy a Yak's cheese chew, which he seemed to enjoy, and some insect dog food.)  They also had many producers of agicultural products there that you could sample and purchase, cheese from every region, honey, nuts, sausages, jams and jellies, wines, beers, ciders, etc.  And we even saw a marching band pushing their way through one of the pavilions, although it seemed like a much less serious operation than the marching bands that compete at the Indiana State Fair.    

The fair was incredibly crowded, so crowded in fact that just making it across a single pavilion could be a half-hour odyssey.

What elements from a midwestern state fair was it missing?  No deep-fried twinkies and frozen lemonade, no midway rides, and no prizes for baking, cooking, arts, or crafts.  I missed those competitions, especially being able to see the prize-winning arts and crafts, which would have been quite interesting here.  The fair was really very focused on agriculture.  Another interesting difference between this fair and the Indiana State Fair:  there was a tremendous amount of alcohol everywhere!  It seemed that most people we passed had a beer or a glass of wine or champagne from one of the local producers.  (And we were there mid-day.)    

There were some interesting political elements, which mostly went over our heads.  Like in the US, support for conservative parties is much stronger in rural areas, so some of the most conservative politicians attend this fair to interact with a large concentration of their supporters in one place.  That place, however, is Paris, and they are not always greeted by the Parisians with open arms.  There was, apparently, an incident involving a beer being thrown at a very conservative politician, along with all of the resulting recriminations.      

After a while of walking around, we started getting hungry.  Lines at the sit-down restaurants were very long and not really moving, so we decided to gather the elements for a picnic and find a quiet spot where we could sit and eat.  That turned out to be a wonderful decision.  One person arrived back with three baguettes fresh from the oven.  Someone else arrived with a plate of sausages and cured meats.  We had an apple preserve, some young cheese from central France, artisanal potato chips, and chocolate-covered hazelnuts.  Everything was delicious and we ate very well!  

Here we are at our fair picnic.  (And, by the way, this photo is a selfie being taken by Mireia in the left foreground, and the photo of the freckled cow at the top of the post was also taken by her.)

We really enjoyed our little taste of midwestern-ish culture with a French twist!