The Foire des Arbres et Vivaces Maisons, held last Sunday, 20th November was a real success from start to finish. Organising events in late November is always risky weather wise, Corbieres folk have an allergy to rain, and tend to start in doors when it is threatened. So while we had a plan B, go into the large garage the Mairie owns, it was great to be able to stay outdoors in the Sun. Even the threatened wind was calm most of the day, and when the rain finally arrived it was at 16.30, just in time to hasten the exhibitors to get their stands packed.
The formate was simple, the top the old foyer was cleared out and filled with ehibitors, the three plant growers from Maisons, Caisse from Solulage with her plants and trees, David Watson and his trees from the high Aude valley, Luc from La Bastide with trees and plants, Alexi from the ferme de Verdouble down in Padern with plants, vegetables and home made jams, Julie with cookies, make up and treatments, Franck from Plantes aromatiques des Corbieres with his transformed herbs and essential oils, and last but nbot least Maya from Montjoi with her Rose and aromatique waters and concoctions, at the back of the square against the church was the buvette/bar of teh association, Dominique et Thierry with their sweet and savory pancakes, Lois the chef with his grill, and the coffee truck. It filled the square perfectly, with tables and chaiors set up in the middle for folks to eat and drink at in the sunshine.
Although the foire was advertised to start at 10am folks started to turn up at 9am, and a steady flow of people turned up throughiut the day until late afternoon. The bar and the food was very popular. The food nearly sold out, and while the bar was a little quieter than Spring that was probably no bad thing, nobody threatens to stab me this time, which has got to be taken as a plus, well at least by me. In fact everything was quite civil, and as far as I am aware no drunks crashed their cars afterwards.
This time we got the music perfect, the band did two sets, before and after lunch and both went down really well, no DJ, which I missed but.
The food, organised as ever by Loic went well, with all the vegetarian quiches selling and all but a handful of Toulouse sausage selling. The bar was steady, we needed more soft drinks and less mulled wine, but those that did discover it reported it excellent.
Most importantly the plants and trees sold well, Caroline was rushed off her feet all day, which was amazing tjhat she could still stand despite doing the Saturday organic market in Narbonne and then coming home to bake the quiches.
The clients came from a wide range of places, great to see friends from Elne and Perpignan, as well as Narbonne. The local community was also out in force, lots of friends from all the Hautes Corbieres.
All told a vet succesful event, and now onto Spring
