Lille’s famous braderie began in the Middle Ages when
servants were granted the right to sell their masters’ old
possessions once a year. In French, brader means to sell at a
low price. Equally, in the 15th century, two poultry merchants
had the idea and obtained permission to provide meat for the
fair-goers. Braden, Flemish for roast, may be the term that
gave the flea market its name. Today there are 33 hours of
continuous bargaining fun for up to two million visitors at
100km of stalls, with some 10,000 exhibitors.
Marilyn Catchpole-Dossat meets Charlotte, who is looking forward to her
very first rentrée and perhaps a promising future career in fashion photography
Charlotte Rice will be 16
on September 7 and for
the first time in her life she
is going to school. Her
parents, disillusioned with
the English school system,
home-educated Charlotte
and her two brothers.
Originally from
Liverpool, the family
moved to Aubin-Saint-
Vaast (62) a year ago. After
some research, Charlotte
applied for a place in the
lycée Louise de Bettignies
in Cambrai. Asked why she
chose this particular school,
Charlotte said: “Louise
Bettignies is the ‘Joan of
Arc of the north’, also
known as Alice Dubois
during the first world war
as an intelligence agent for
the 2nd Bureau. She was
my inspiration and the
lycée specialises in
photography. My ambition
is to become a noted
fashion photographer
working around the world
for top flight magazines.”
Twelve vintage cars, and their owners from the RMCC
(Ringmer multimarques car club), will make their debut
visit to France on September 26 and will be treated to a
midday vin d’honneur the next day served in the little
village of Estréelles, to celebrate what they hope will
become an annual event.
The Route du poisson
was the old route of
the daily fish deliveries
from the Channel to
Chantilly and Paris. Teams
of the sturdy Boulonnais
horses used to pull the fresh
fish, packed in seaweed,
arriving within 24 hours.
The Boulonnais mares used
to deliver in about 15 relays
the ballon de la marée –
roughly translated, the catch
from the tides, until the
railway was built in 1848. In
1991, Bruno Pourchet, the
then director of the
Compiègne stud farm, had
the idea of resurrecting the
route as a race and inviting
other European heavy horses
and draught breeds to join
the challenge.
The Centre region’s mobile cinema marks 25 years. Kelly Bostrom Robic meets some faithful movie goers
Residents of La Ferté-
Saint-Aubin often
grumble about the
cumbersome trucks that pass
through the town’s narrow
main street, causing traffic
jams and delays. But when
one particular 18-wheeler
arrives each month, people
line up to pay for a visit.
That’s because this
vehicle is a cinémobile, a
100-seat movie theatre
complete with a full-sized
screen, heating, air
conditioning and Dolby
Surround Sound. Centre
Images, a regional
governmental agency,
currently operates three such
trucks in the Centre.
“The idea is to bring the
theatre close to people living
in the villages,” says
François Hardy, who
manages and promotes the
cinémobiles. Towns must be
more than 15km away from
a fixed cinema to be eligible
for showings.
The north and east of
France boasts the three
biggest zip rides in the
country, at Fumay
(Ardennes), La Bresse-
Gérardmer (Vosges) and
Châtel in the Bouches-du-
Rhône. There is also a good
sprinkling of popular hightech
tree-climbing
establishments, with the
biggest being at Brumath just
outside Strasbourg.
The three specialised zip
wires – tyroliennes – are
each over a kilometre long.
Châtel boasts the only one in
the world that has a fulllength
return cable. Instead
of a boring return journey in
a car, you can hurtle back to
where you started from. The
1,350-metre wire at Fumay
achieves speeds of up to
115kph and drops 110
metres. Slower speeds can be
arranged for the less intrepid.
The views are breathtaking.
Her name is Woinic. She weighs 50 tons, she’s more than
10 metres tall, and everyone’s crazy about her. Oh, and she’s
a boar.
The people of the Ardennes like the metallic Woinic, the
largest wild boar in the world, so much that they’ve got
permission from the conseil général to make her their
departmental emblem. Moving her from the barn in Bognysur-
Meuse where she has slept since 1993, Woinic will now
be prominently displayed on a welcome perch to the
Ardennes on the A34 autoroute.
The private French bank has seized the opportunity to acquire the Belgian, Luxembourg and international banking and insurance elements of Fortis, the collapsed Benelux bank.
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