The Gavray Calf Market
Excitement is always high on Wednesday mornings from children and adults alike.....its the day of the Gavray calf market!
This is the day that farmers from all around bring their calves to be sold at the local market. If you get there by 10.30 ish you can watch them being unloaded and led into the open building where they are tied up. The buyers in their black coats line up opposite behind a rope and at the moment of 11am a whistle blows. Then the fun starts as the buyers run to their favourite farmers to negotiate....there is no auctioneer. There's often a lot of 'huffing and puffing' before the buyer persuades the farmer that indeed his calves are only worth so many Euros.
There are lots of characters in their flat caps and the final, sometimes heated, negotiations are for the best calves.
Don't forget to go and look for the old Citroen vans with their back doors open and half a dozen large pink piglets lying in a bed of straw. Then there are ducklings, chicks, guinea fowl etc being sold to the farmer's wives and put into cardboard boxes to take home.
The smell of sizzling sausages will be making you feel hungry by now and I bet you won't come away without trying one!
There are quite a few stalls including an excellent fruit and veg stall and a superb fish stall selling everything from local oysters, scallops, shell fish and crabs to huge variety of fresh fish.
Across the road the bars are starting to do a roaring trade with the farmers and buyers alike. Why not join them for a 'plat du jour' in the Restaurant de la Gare or on the terrace outside. Such a great atmosphere!
