Portraits of the Planet: St. Pierre Market

Every Saturday, there is a market in St. Pierre just one block from where I currently live. It's a great opportunity to get fresh fruits, veggies, cheeses, meats, and various knick knacks created by the vendors. It is also a great place to take photographs and score some fresh vanilla. The market (marché) is very crowded, noisy, full of strange smells, and blindingly hot. I look forward to it every week. For a couple hours every Saturday, the Market is the center of the world. Sugar cane juicers set up stands where they create fresh fruit juices from the various fruits on the island. They take fresh sugar cane and juice those as well. Mixing the two together can create something really wonderful especially on a super hot day. Fresh roasted chickens crowd the stalls at the front of the market, while little snack shacks along the way allow for mid market snacking. Samoussas are the snack of choice; a little triangle deep fat fried dumpling filled with different items such as crab, potato, swordfish, and cheese. The vanilla smell wafts over you the deeper you delve into the market. Baby pineapples get cheaper the farther in you go. The real finds are inside the heart of the market, where produce is much cheaper. A pound of onions for less than euro; three baby pineapples for two euro (or 1 euro fifty cents depending on the time); 20 vanilla pods for 3 euro. I try to buy all my produce every week from the market because it is the most inexpensive way to shop on this pricey island. I also love the feel, the vibe, of the market. It gets into my soul and makes me excited to wake up on Saturday mornings. Here are some images of the market, taken over three weeks. Sorry for the mass quantity, I just decided to post them all at once. Till next time....