Salon de l’Agriculture.

Towards the end of this week, you may notice a different type of French person roaming the streets of Paris. Maybe a bit on the chunky side, decked out in unfashionable threads and driving a clunker of a car. This person can confuse you because you because he’s obviously French but can’t navigate the Metro and certainly not the Etoile. In short, they are hicks from the sticks. France is full of them. And come this weekend, they’re going to drive their old pick-ups, cars and tractors and converge in Paris for the annual Salon de l’Agriculture at the Paris Expo. It’s one of the largest salons of the entire year for Paris, occupying six of the eight exposition buildings. This week, the Expo workers are covering much of the buildings’ floors with hay and temporary stalls.

Every imaginable type of provincial métier (from wheat farmer to cheese maker) and every imaginable type of farm animal put their best face forward for a sort of country-come-to-city county fair. If you’ve never been, then you must go at least once. It’s crowded and loud, but it’s a blast. Even Ronald McDonald gets in on the act, displaying cattle and chickens and showing the latest technological advances in agriculture and animal husbandry.

Statistics for the Salon are staggering—this year over 3,000 animals will be brought in from outside Ile-de-France, including 600 of the most enormous cows and bulls you will ever see. Some of the cows weigh several hundred kilos and several wear beautifully decorated and ornate cowbells around their necks. The poor devils are strapped into their little space from this week until March 2.

The Salon is divided into three “poles”—agricultural products, animals and nature. You’ll have the most fun visiting the animals, where at the very least it’s one big petting zoo of horses, donkeys, cows, chickens, sheep, dogs, cats, goats, and pigs. Throughout the Salon are competitions, just like in a real county fair, where animals are judged and awarded prizes. There are also animal races and shows and even ateliers to help you find your favorite cut of beef or lamb (these taste ateliers are done with dead animals, not the live ones).

Here is a fantastic video that an American made last year at the Salon (click on the photo to watch):

The agricultural products pole should also be on your list of things to do. This section is divided up into products from 22 regions in France, products from French overseas departments, and finally products from around the world. This area has 29 restaurants where you can sit down for some table service and is full of hundreds of exhibitors selling their products. Be sure to bring cash—a lot of it—and then just walk around buying bits and pieces of fresh dairy, sausages and fruits and veggies, not to mention foie gras and wine.

The nature pole is the more technical pole and might be of interest only to those directly involved with agriculture. Expositions here range from meteorology to irrigation to wood harvesting to wheat growing. There’s an agricultural jobs forum, orders are taken for tractors and other farming equipment is sold. There is a section here on balcony gardening for city-dwellers.

Some interesting things this year at the Salon are a Russian house, Brazilian capoeira dance lessons, Korean tea ceremony, Japanese food demonstrations and a restaurant called “Dans Le Noir”, set up by the Ministry of Agriculture and Crédit Agricole where you are given samples from the products hall in the dark to enhance your taste experience.

Tickets to the Salon cost 12 euros a person (kids under 6 are free and kids 6 and over cost 6 euros). You can buy your tickets in advance here. The Salon starts on Saturday and runs through March 2. It’s coinciding with the winter vacances, so every day will be pretty crowded.