“There’s everything!”: Sunday column at the foot of the Cévennes, from the Prés Saint-Jean district to the funfair

The Friends of Old Alais announce that the flea market will leave Place de Belgique. MIDI LIBRE – ALEXIS BETHUNE

La fête foraine d'Alès, sur le champ de foire de l'avenue Jules-Guesde, est ouverte jusqu'à 20 heures. MIDI LIBRE – CHARLES LEDUC

Immersion à Alès, dans le Gard, en ce week-end coincé entre deux jours fériés… mais durant lequel règne une activité certaine.

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A Sunday between Christmas and New Year's Day, in Alès. It is 10 o'clock on December 29, and while a few shoppers are walking the aisles of the temporary market halls under the forecourt of the town hall, the city's activity is concentrated in the Prés Saint-Jean district. There, the weekly market is teeming with customers. And if it's already “chouffe” (monitoring, editor's note) on the drug dealing point on rue Sully-Prudhomme, one access to which is also obstructed by trash cans forming a chicane, another activity, this one legal, brings life to the Place de Belgique, located opposite the Jean-Baptiste-Dumas high school (JBD): the flea market organized by the association of the Friends of Old Alais.

The bargain hunters will return to the banks of the Gardon

The regulars of this Sunday meeting, scheduled from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., have been there for a few weeks, thus leaving the lower Gardon car park to motorists coming to do their shopping for the end-of-year holidays. “Next Sunday, we'll find our favorite site again; we'll see about it with the town hall”, announces, delighted, Max Guiraud, one of the members of the association. Around him, there's not really a crowd. “It's sparse. People don't like the place,” he explains, while one of his colleagues notes that “it's hard to park here.” And then, on Avenue Carnot, “it's nicer”, they say.

The rides attract the crowd

In the afternoon, the Place des Martyrs comes to life quietly with the opening of the ice rink at 1 p.m., and during this time, the forecourt of the Cratère buzzes to the rhythm of the Christmas market, open since late morning. But it is clear that the most intense activity is on the other side of the Gardon. It is 2:30 p.m. and the funfair, with the help of mild weather, is swelling with people. Families and friends are there. Annalyne, almost 10 years old, comes for the first time with her parents, Virginie and Clément, originally from Saint-Victor-de-Malcap. “The program ? It's looking at the stuffed animals, the attractions, and she's the one who decides…”, smiles the mother of a little girl who prefers “the quiet rides”. Further on, Leny, Juliette, Éloïse and Éva, all 18-year-olds from Alès, come to the fairground several times each year. “We spend time with our friends; it gets us out”, declares the boy. “There's everything!”, Juliette says, who is celebrating her birthday that very day.