IT WAS three colours bleuin Dublin's docklands yesterday as the clouds parted for Bastille Day and the launch of the capital's first French Week.
As Parisians made do with a controversial military parade on their national holiday, Dublin’s Spencer Dock welcomed hundreds of visitors to Le Marché de France, a week-long festival market supported by the Ireland-France Chamber of Commerce where Francophiles can indulge in pungent cheeses, spicy sausages and crêpes galore.
Sober-suited bankers from the docklands stormed the market at lunchtime, and had some tough decisions to make: a crêpe with lemon and honey or a galette of blue cheese, asparagus and tarragon?
French Week coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Alliance Française in Ireland. As part of the celebrations, visitors to the docklands can tour the Belem, a three-masted barque and the oldest sailing ship in Europe, berthed here until Saturday.
Visitor to the market Yann Ricourt wielded a boudin noir, or black sausage, which he was delighted to find in one of the stalls. The Normandy native, who has been in Ireland for 15 years and now works for O2, was sporting a blue striped shirt in honour of la fête nationale.
“Until now, I feel I can’t wear my French football jersey,” he said. “But today it feels like maybe the Irish forgave us at last.
Cliona McGowan, director of the Ireland-France Chamber of Commerce, said France-Ireland relations had never been stronger. Trade between Ireland and France amounts to €2 billion a year.
