Lille Braderie, postponed due to the Paris Games, opens this Saturday

2024-09-14 10:32:35

The process is changed by two weeks. Braderie de Lille, one of the largest flea markets in Europe which attracts 2.5 million visitors each year, opened on Saturday morning, two weeks later than usual because of the Paralympic Games from Paris.

Despite this delay, announced in January 2023 by the Mayor of Lille Martine Aubry, “no one is lost, everyone is there”, congratulated the council on Friday morning on France Bleu Nord, who said that 5,500 demonstrators is expected, which “half is the population. , 2,000 traders and 545 second-hand traders and antique traders”.

The sale traditionally takes place on the first weekend of September,

VideoThe record for the largest caterpillar in the world was broken during the Lille Braderie

Although it was officially banned before the launch of the sale on Saturday at 8 am, sales began on Friday in some pedestrian areas of the city, an AFP correspondent noted.

Since 2017, the sale of any product or item (without fixed deals) has been “restricted”, with the city presenting the event as “Europe’s largest exhibition for recycling”.

3,000 agents mobilized for protection

While 500 tons of vegetables will be moved over the weekend, Lille calls on restaurants to make lots of meat within the area of ​​​​the authorized sale and to report them to allow their recycling.

As for the food that is not sold, it will be distributed on Monday afternoon during a “great communal meal”, organized by the city with associations, traders and restaurants.

The event, the end of which was reduced after the attack in Nice in 2016, also has a strong security challenge: “3,000 state agents (police, gendarmes, customs officers, soldiers) will be gathered,” referring to the area of North on Friday.

In addition, 626 concrete blocks and 1,550 barriers secure access to the area of ​​clearance sale.

Users have expressed fear that the chaos will come from public transport, the operation of which has been disrupted for several weeks due to maintenance problems amid suspicion of asbestos.

While vehicular traffic is prohibited in the area of ​​the clearance sale, line 2 trains of the metro will run every 2 minutes 45 seconds, Ilevia points out, the public transport network of the Metropolitan City of Lille. By 2023, the operating frequency of metros on the same line will be between 1 minute 30 minutes and 2 minutes during the day.