“Paulette, it’s a monument!” : at 79 years old, the garlic seller at the Sète market still faithful to the job

Avec son franc-parler et sa bonne humeur, elle a un contact chaleureux avec ses clients… Même quand le vent glace les doigts Midi Libre – Baptiste Ansé

Paulette Dangliant vendeuse d’ail et doyenne du marché de la ville, ne laisse personne indifférent avec son franc-parler légendaire.

"Salut Paulette tu vas bien ?", exclaims one of the stallholders, accompanying his apostrophe with a broad smile aimed at the famous garlic seller from the Sète market.&nbsp ;Known as the white wolf, Paulette Dangliant is one of the faces of the Wednesday meeting, around the market halls. For 50 years, she has been coming to sell garlic and onions grown by her nephew from Tarn. The physical fitness and abilities of the oldest of the market, 79 years old, are impressive.

"Paulette is a monument"

"There was still the Banegas butcher in rue Alsace-Lorraine she was already selling her garlic, whispers a regular. Paulette, it’s a monument. For years she has been loading and unloading her products as if they were light as straw." But the seller living near Montpellier, and who a few years ago did two more markets per week, would not miss this meeting for anything in the world: "< em>We see people, we talk…"

"Same character and same outspokenness"

Legendary sound "Come on the garlic packet" resonates in the heads of the Sétois. Paulette is a directory of the unique Island. The passers-by, the other sellers, and even the police, the septuagenarian knows them all and calls out to everyone.

"Molinette's companion (the couple has their stand nearby, Editor's note), je I knew him in his mother's womb", confides the garlic seller. And the main person responds: "what's great is that’ rsquo;she kept the same character and the same outspokenness."

This natural side is what makes Paulette stand out. "You count the grains sir ?", she says towards a customer to his taste too long to decide. And when he tries to negotiate the price, the response comes out. "You need to seek treatment, Sir! He thinks we fell on our ass like Saint-Martin ?", laughs Paulette, in reference to the charitable rider who shared her coat with a beggar. Yet she herself admits, her prices have increased. "But they remain reasonable and around those practiced by supermarkets."

After all these years on the markets, Paulette witnesses the evolution of the cost of living. With a bit of nostalgia. "Before we worked, we managed to eat. Today this is no longer always the case…" she laments, while one of her customers talks to her about the time of one-franc coffees. Times are changing, but Paulette will continue this Wednesday to loudly praise the quality of her garlic, in the shadow of the market halls of Sète.