In Loupian, the new weekly market is waking up the town center

Sur le stand de fruits et légumes du marché de Loupian. Midi Libre – Thomas Ancona-Léger

Depuis mai dernier, le nouveau marché hebdomadaire insuffle un vent de fraîcheur et de convivialité dans le village.

Children running between the stands, locals chatting over lemonade and tourists coming to discover local products. In Loupian, on Place Charles de Gaulle located behind the town hall, the new weekly market now enlivens the town center of this village every Wednesday, straddling scrubland and pond.

"Meeting together"

That’s because in the city of the wolf, there hadn’t been a market for around fifteen years. So suffice to say that the latter's return last May was particularly awaited by the 2,000 inhabitants of the town. Like Ophélie, a local from Louisiana who sips a grenadine in the company of friends in the shade of a plane tree. "It’s a very good thing, it saves me from having to go all the way to Mèze to buy meat and what’s more it allows us to find ourselves all together." Daughter of the manager of the only grocery store in town, Ophélie nevertheless evokes the few reluctances which prevailed at the’ rsquo;arrival of this new market. "At first, the traders were a little afraid of the competition, but ultimately everything went well because we were associated with the project", she confides.

Partner local merchants

This good understanding between traders and exhibitors is due, among others, to Fanny Garrigue, municipal councilor in charge of local commerce. It was she who was at the origin of this "open-air market" and who decided to give priority to local businesses in the allocation of locations, to avoid any conflict. "There was a real demand from our constituents, says the municipal councilor. It was obvious for us to involve the Loupian traders, which is why we, for example, granted a location to the grocery store who comes to sell their fruits and vegetables directly on the market."

Peripheral torpor

To understand the event that this new weekly market represents for this small village, we must also look at the evolution of the town over the last 20 years. "Little by little, Loupian, from its proximity to Mèze which is a much larger town, was transformed into a dormitory village. The market we had at the time ran out of steam and the exhibitors gradually withdrew, explains Fanny Garrigue. His return therefore marks in a certain way also the awakening of Loupian who had fallen asleep in his peripheral torpor.

For the municipal councilor, this is only a first step in the revitalization of the city center. "Our ultimate goal would be to reposition the market on Place de la République, in the heart of the village. It must be on an axis passing , but this can only be done after the end of the work in 2025."

The Loupian market, every Wednesday at Place Charles de Gaulle. I subscribe to read more