Paris (AFP)

"It really is the light version!" Smaller and sparse stands, but happy customers and traders: Parisians have found their outdoor markets, and sellers admit their relief to resume a business, even if some raise price inflation in Rungis.

"It's funny, to see yourself like that," smiles Céline, 36, a fruit and vegetable seller at the Place des Fêtes market in northern Paris: the mask she now wears to protect herself from the coronavirus, which is still circulating, changes the customer-trader relationship and somewhat disrupts the "chat" of the street markets.

But even this mask which hides the lower face ends up being recovered by the banter of the Parisian titis: "You have beautiful eyes" launches a client to the young woman.

Céline no longer needs emergency makeshift fortifications on her stand, with crates, to keep customers at a distance at the start of the Covid-19 epidemic. "They closed the aisle opposite, reduced the footage of all the traders." To allow distance.

This market is really a "light version, like the light diet", laughs a client: Marie-France, 60 years old, who has just bought grapefruits and a turnip, regrets the market "before", "more alive".

Benjamin Bousch, a 38-year-old fishmonger, is counting on the joy of the inhabitants of the neighborhood to offset the reduction in surface area. "It's like the sailors who find their wives after two months at sea," he dares, hollowing out red mullet, all to his joy of "finding an activity, seeing clients again".

Many, like him, tried for two months to "limit the breakage" by delivering to individuals. In the south of Paris, Didier Marvie, a fishmonger on the Convention market launched it full time: "I worked like crazy to make deliveries which ultimately brought me 20% of my turnover usual "he explains to AFP.

- "Martian awards" -

Tuesday, the reopening of the markets, closed since March 24, and the reunion between customers and traders, delivered some real moments of emotion: "our job is also social, all the little grandmothers in the neighborhood came to see us this morning, "says Saïd Bougy, an early bird at the Convention market.

But like other traders, he is surprised at the "Martian prices" of certain fruits and vegetables at the wholesale market in Rungis where he gets his supplies. "In two months, what changed the most were the prices, on some products they took 70%. I sold the tub of strawberries 2.50 euros before confinement, and today it is bought between 3, 50 and 4 euros to Rungis, I would like someone to explain to me. "

His wife, Nathalie Bougy, from a family of early vegetables from Essonne who "has been" holding the same end of the Parisian sidewalk since 1954, has not yet recovered from the closure of the market imposed overnight.

"I was disgusted to find myself having to do my own shopping at the supermarket, where people touched fruits, vegetables, where everyone was crowded, without distancing, while we, we were penalized. in open space and we had managed to put in place security measures for everyone, "she said.

Determined never to "let it go", she now distributes her brand new business card to each of her customers. Just before passing your hands to the hydroalcoholic liquid. Between each transaction.

Odette Galipeau, 75 years old, including more than 40 near the Place des Fêtes, regrets the absence of a stand at the town hall of Paris, with masks: "Mrs. Hidalgo bought lots of masks, it's time to distribute them! "

"It is not normal that all customers do not wear masks," also notes a fishmonger.

Everyone is feverishly waiting for the big market of the week, Sunday. Those who restart with few products so as not to increase their costs fear that there are not enough customers. The others fear that there will be a crowd and that the authorities will again decide to close for lack of health care.

© 2020 AFP