“The benefits are enormous!” : Marie-Sophie Lacarrau tells us everything about the competition for the most beautiful market in France

Marie-Sophie Lacarrau; à la tête du 13 H de TF1. TF1 – CHRISTOPHE CHEVALIN

The competition for the most beautiful market in France, launched by the leading European channel, in partnership with Midi Libre and the PQR, broke participation records last year. The seventh edition is launched. The presenter of the 13 Hours of TF1, Marie-Sophie Lacarrau, evokes, for us, the mechanisms of this atypical competition.

You were absent from the news last week, how are you ?

I was absent for a week ("to take control exams", said TF1) , but I started again on Monday and frankly everything is fine. Thank you very much for hearing from me.

TF1 is relaunching, like every year, the competition for the most beautiful market in France. What qualities can make the difference ?

To win, you have to tick several boxes: a particular decor, an atmosphere often with colorful characters and delicious products, sometimes with the one you find here and nowhere else.

It also takes a lot of determination, we realize that when municipalities take over the competition and pull out all the stops to encourage people to vote, it works !

This competition has, in fact, been a great success with 9 and a half million votes last year, a record. How do you analyze this
craze ?

We are very attached to our markets because they are also places to live. You will find good products and advice there, you arrive with a list of products to buy, you leave with recipe ideas…

But they also play another essential role, it's the place where we meet, we talk to each other in the middle of the stalls, we' interested in each other, we get news from the grandfather, from the neighbor, and we feel good there.

When we go shopping in a supermarket, sorry, but in general the less time we spend there, the better off we are, whereas there we enjoy hanging out …   

This France of markets is also a state of mind, almost a militant act at a time when the defense of French products is being highlighted on background of agricultural crisis…

You are absolutely right, in fact we noticed it after the very strong mobilization of our farmers, in the days that followed we saw people saying exactly that on the markets.

There has been a renewed interest in defending our producers who work in difficult conditions and, too often, are not paid well enough for their work.& nbsp;We have power, we, consumers, so let's help them in our own way, when we can. 

Let us also mobilize for the spotlight that the competition will bring to the markets and the work of our farmers, they really need it, perhaps even more so this year.

What was the effect on the markets that were crowned?

This competition puts a lot of good humor in the newspaper but above all its benefits are enormous! For example, in Sanary-sur-Mer, first winner in 2018, they had to add parking spaces. ;and set up a free shuttle to facilitate access to the market. Montbrison told us about attendance up 30%.

The Narbonne market received 600,000 visitors in the summer following the victory, approximately twice as many as a normal summer. This is considerable. They had wanted to launch a night market for years, their victory allowed them to do so. Dieppe was still feeling the effects of victory two years later, with customers arriving from neighboring regions.

We see the momentum that this can bring locally.

If we ask you to get a little wet, what are your favorite markets ?

(Laughs) I loved coming to announce the victory of the Narbonne market in 2022, I'm not going to hide it, I know this city very well, the atmosphere was wonderful& ;nbsp;around and inside the halls. But I'm more in the Toulouse sector, so I have a weakness for the Revel market.

But what I like in all the markets of the South is the arrival of summer fruits, it's 39;is fabulous, I love nectarines, apricots, cherries, strawberries. I also like the tielles of Sète…. 

You also have many links with Occitanie…

Yes, I was born in Aveyron, I grew up in Perpignan and I studied in Toulouse where I still lived seven or eight years ago. I therefore have a deep attachment to our region and the markets in competition this year (Sète, Uzès, Céret, Espéraza and Florac, to be decided until April 1 on Midilibre.fr, NLDR ), I see very well what they look like. Besides, Sète and Uzès have not done poorly in previous years. 

I wish them all good luck!

The 13 H of TF1 has made this anchoring in the regions its DNA, an approach which is now becoming a school on other channels…

Yes, 13 H of TF1 has always been focused on the regions and this will continue, that's what we want to highlight, we want our country appears on the air in all its diversity, marches are part of it, like, at the end of the year, our Christmas recipe competition. a very gourmet and gourmet journal, in the image of our country…

I subscribe to read more