On Friday, before cooking Pork medallions, I saw some real Pork. Hog style.I'm not sure what description I can give the Salon d'Agriculture, so let me start with some statistics:
Size: 8 exhibition halls... 140,000 sqm .
Animal Visitors: In 2007, (2008 statistics yet to be released, but they are probably similar) 4,000 animals were presented.
Their 2-legged Friends: In 2007, there were 590,703 visitors of whom 122,315 were trade visitors from the agriculture or food industry sector
Without further ado...some pictures (We stupidly gave ourselves only 3 hours to visit, and we only got to visit 3 of the exhibit halls - 2 farm animal halls and 1 food hall... so this is not completely representative of *all* there is!)
Ayako (above), Andrew (below) we had to stand in line to get tickets it was so popular! (We split up to see whose line was the fastest.. Ayako came from behind to win!)
Cock-a-doodle-dooo!!
Its hard to see in this picture, but the geese are being chased by a dog.
There were even cats and dogs there!
Cute rabbit!
I just loved how the merchants were dressed at the food salon!
This was *so* incredibly yummy!!
Okay. Fine, I'm vain - I had to include a picture of me...
My family portrait...
Me and Scott....
Baaaaaahhhh
Check out the horns on this guy!!
(Apparently the French have relaxed their standards...even cows can be MOFs! j/k)
Awww Piglets!!
In case you were wondering...the smell wasn't that great - and at part of the salon it appeared that they were actually selling industrial vacuum cleaners! If they're strong enough for the animals, they must be strong enough for your home!
Another thing. The French have *NO* qualms about killing their food. For example, next to living cows...there was a vendor talking about beef with cow parts in front of him. And goat cheese next to the goats. And perhaps the most sacrilegious thing I have ever seen, a cow in front of a big "McDonalds" sign!!
There wasn't actually a McDonalds restaurant in the middle of the cow section of the fair, but rather a pretty significant Public Relations booth (booth understates it though, it was probably half the size of a McD's). There was also a similar "booth" with Danone Yogurt here were are in front of it (Yes, it had a gigantic cow attached!)
No French event this size is complete without Sarkozy, but this time it brought a little bit more of a mess - Video of actual event
Newsweek coverage of this (In English)
A very interesting story, but in effect there was one guy who refused to shake Sarkozy's hand and Sarkozy told the guy the equivalent of "fuck you, asshole"....
Oh the French. Gotta Love 'Em.
MOOOOOH!
Daria
