Foire internationale de Bordeaux

The summer atmosphere haves arrived in Bordeaux! The month of June has already been filled with events in every corner of Bordeaux that brings the city to life. During the next couple of weeks, I’ll be posting updates on the festivities around the area.

We started out with the Foire internationale de Bordeaux (International Fair of Bordeaux), which took place between May 28 and June 5. A friend and I decided to go on the last day of the fair without knowing what the whole thing was about. All we wanted to see initially was the Fabuleuse Egypt exhibition, and little did we know that we were in for a mini World Expo.

Upon arriving at Parc d’Exposition, we saw rows and rows of booths and kiosks from countries all around the world – many countries had more than one booth – selling their specialties, ranging anywhere from food to clothing to musical instruments to crafts. These countries included but were not limited to Madagascar, Tahiti, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, China, Thailand, Senegal, Italy, Russia, Canada, Egypt, and Peru. At various points during the day, there were also dance performances from the islands in the French Overseas Departments and Territories, such as Martinique, La Réunion, and Guadeloupe. Never have I wanted to visit Martinique so much!

An anticipated short visit turned into a 4-hour outing as my friend and I roamed around the exposition grounds, surrounded by a million different colours and attracted by the unique items on sale. We wandered from booth to booth, cozily packed together, and saw quite a lot of fun and unusual stuff that you wouldn’t expect to see in Bordeaux.

A piece of ornament from an African country, either Senegal or Madagascar, I can’t remember exactly.