16.11.26 / Marché Des Enfants Rouge/ Situated in the fashionable Haut Marais neighborhood, Le Marché des Enfants Rouge was created in 1615 and is the oldest covered market in Paris / Whilst it contains typical market stalls for fish, cheese, fruit and veg etc / It is well known for its street food style eateries from around the world / I saw food from Morocco, French Polynesia, Lebanon and Japan to name a few / I switched on my recorder and squeezed my way through between two adjacent queues to reach a more balanced point in the room, between the florist and the fishmongers, with some form of mini restaurant to my right and a fruit and veg stall on my left / As time went by the market got busier / I was able to hear many languages, and with the fairly low tin and glass roof overhead, everything was reflected back into the building, muddying the voices, everyone straining to be heard / As hundreds of people continued to pack into the relatively small market, the ambience reached a fever pitch / You have Parisians ordering their fresh produce and bantering with the grocers / You have diners enjoying a lunch together, socializing, catching up, discussing / And you have tourists excitedly marveling at the delicacies on offer, exclaiming to one another /

My senses were slightly overloaded as I walked around / With the variety of sounds, smells, colours and the constantly changing crowd to weave through, it was difficult to focus on one single thing / Instead I was immersed and a little overwhelmed. It was hectic but pleasant / I chose this recording to start the album for the vibrancy of the sound and business of the recording / In fact it’s the busiest recording on the album / It is lunchtime on a Saturday afternoon – a peak time for the market /

For me it reflects a period when I first arrived in Paris / Keen to explore and become accustomed to my new habitat, I visited the more famous and frequented touristy parts of the city / The sound typifies my feelings of arriving in the capital city and being thrown into the fast lane / Life suddenly seemed very busy and it seemed important to do everything and quickly / The recording captures the injection of vitality that being in Paris gave me / I embraced it and enjoyed it, although it could leave me exhausted, as I expect too much of this would leave your ears exhausted //

All recordings and Photos by Ben Gale See the PDF: https://issuu.com/bivouacrecording/docs/60_minute_cities-_paris-_ben_gale

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