Day 26

The open air market. This is where everyone goes to get cheap fruits, meats, clothes, and other miscellaneous items. Each district in Paris has their own and it happens about 2 or 3 days every week. I decided to go and see if I could find some cheap food, because 1,22€ for 6 eggs isn't that great. I walk to my local open air market which is at the next train stop. It snowed a little last night and it looked nice on the pavement.
I get to the market and am overwhelmed by having to do this in a foreign language. I bought onions from one guy and he was really nice. He was understanding and spoke slowly and clearly. The second guy, I bought apples from, and he switched to a broken English for me. He asked where I was from and I said the U.S., and had to specify from NY for him. He then proceeded to sing Alicia Key's part in Empire State of Mind while waving one hand in the air. I'm sure half the market heard him; I was mortified. I really wanted to get out of there. He asked me what ethnicity I was when I was paying for the apples and when I told him Dominican, he goes "hot, hot, lots of sun?" I nodded yes and he added "lots of dancing?" while dancing to what I can only classify as his own version of reggae. After leaving his stand I briskly bought eggs from another (30 eggs for under 4 €!) and some other items on my list. The open air market is definitely the way to go! Everything was a lot cheaper and I'll try to avoid the regular markets more often now. I have yet to find mayonnaise that doesn't contain Dijon mustard. I'll have to look in the supermarket for that I guess.