“I was over the moon to come to Sète”: after 18 years at Les Halles, Martine lowers the curtain at Comptoir du Sud

Martine portant fièrement un savon sculpté par l’artiste Joël Bast. Midi Libre – Kelman Marti

Le samedi 6 janvier, Martine quittera définitivement les Halles de Sète.

"In 2021, I had already thought about folding up shop. But when I took the plunge, I had a realization and decided to continue the adventure." Two years later, the time is finally came for Martine Leiba-Guiton to tidy up her stalls, lower the curtain of the Comptoir du Sud and pass the torch to a young buyer. At Les Halles, the 71-year-old Parisian was a “character”.

Saleswoman or actress ?

Since her arrival in 2005, she has left no one indifferent, through her actions and her atypical personality. Some will remember the Marseille soaps or the perfumes they sold, others will remember her tousled red hair, but most will remember the septuagenarian's adolescent vivacity. The shopkeeper even lived her adventure "to the fullest" for two years doing stand-up to chat and laugh with passers-by.

Yet seeing the actress at Les Halles is a coincidence. After growing up alongside traveling merchant parents, she promised herself not to follow in their footsteps. But one day in the 1990s took him to Sète. And it was love at first sight.

"Les Halles, the people, the sea, Mont Saint-Clair…", are responsible for this love which made her leave Paris with her husband for the singular island. "He told me that he wanted to come and live here and he didn't know that I was in love with this city, so I was obviously in heaven," remembers the one whose few wrinkles are the only witnesses of her age. Then in 2005, five years after losing her husband, the opportunity to open a boutique in Les Halles presented itself.

A well-deserved vacation

Over the years, Comptoir du Sud has become known. Customers become loyal. And Martine’s civic engagement is energizing the market. "For the holidays in 2009, we organized a gift basket raffle with the other merchants, and Pierre Vassiliu made the draw. In 2011, for Mother's Day, I exhibited the drawings and poems of students from the city's schools in the Halles."

Outside the lung of Sète, the survivor of a drowning during the summer of 2023 had also led interventions in middle and high schools to fight against homophobia.

What future ?

In this vein, she intends to repeat the experience after her departure, this time with the theme of school bullying. "So, I can't say that I'm retiring, because I won't stay behind,” she comments, with a smile on her face. But above all, Martine will pass through Paris to see exhibitions and satisfy her appetite for art, before embarking on a tour of France. Not with a sporting spirit, but with discovery to visit all the French cities that she doesn't yet know.

By then, perhaps you will come across Martine in the alleys, museums, theaters and especially cinemas of Sète, her passion.

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