“I, the Saint-Mich’ fair, have been doing it since I was 12, and I’m 46 today. So it’s not a little wind that’s going to discourage me! “. On the Dajot course, Bertrand, who left Pontanézen at 3:45 a.m. this Sunday, September 29, 2024 with his stock of Pokémon cards and others under his arm, is hardly moved by the tough wind, which blows on his small installation and has emptied the nerve center for private unpackers. “As long as there is no fleet, it’s fine.” “And even if she arrives, I will stay,” continues his neighbor, Jérémy, who came from Cavale-Blanche and who has settled next to him.
However, this Sunday, the duo seems lonely on the Cours Dajot, where the thirty sellers create a sparse garage sale, where they had to look for every last square centimeter available the day before. “Some gave up and packed everything up before 8 a.m., because of the wind,” confirms a city agent.
A greatly reduced scope
The gale in question was predicted. The municipality had thus, on Friday, announced that the children’s area, Square Juin, would be closed, and that the other areas of the fair could have their schedules modified depending on the weather. However, the Segalen garden and Wilson square are deserted. The funfair opens gradually this afternoon. Only the rides with the strongest wind resistance could remain closed this Sunday. The little train, for its part, works.
“We will only stay the morning,” says Frédéric, who came with his sons Aniel (8 years old) and Soan (5 years old). “Because we have something else planned this afternoon, and especially because the children are starting to get cold.” Elyyn, from Plabennecoise, is struggling with her piles of clothes that are almost flying away, when her friend Swanny firmly hangs up a rack that is a little too shaken by the gusts. “We haven’t unpacked everything, it’s too much hassle. But we have prepared the tarpaulins just in case. We are equipped to last all day, even if there are no crowds.”
Rue du Château, where traffic was as fluid on Saturday as on the Autoroute du Soleil on August 15, the contrast is just as striking: half of the traders present the day before deserted this morning, and the buyers are not legion .
“This morning, I understood”
Philippe Le Pottier is busy repacking. “I closed last night, as if nothing had happened, after a beautiful day. I didn’t understand when I saw that the chichis seller next to me, where there was a fifteen meter queue all day, was heading back on the road. This morning, I understood: there aren’t enough people to work well, with the wind. And it’s not going to get better, it could even get borderline with the tarpaulins on my gazebo.”
The Costa Rican brewer Dimezell (Quessoy) discovered the Saint-Michel fair this year. But one day was enough to convince him. “I didn’t know where I was going, because I know you have a lot of good brewers here. But yesterday was great, and there won’t be storms every time. So, from now on, I will come back every year.”
