At the end of February the exposition halls at Porte de Versaillles on the southern edge of Paris are transformed into an enormous barnyard. That is where the City meets the Country.

For a week, honking horns and screeching tires  from the sempiternal traffic jams on the nearby "périphérique" blend incongruously with quacking, mooing, cackling, bleating and whinnying  from the “Salon International de l’Agriculture”..

CITY MEETS COUNTRY

Wherever you venture that week, you run into the weatherbeaten faces of farmers on their annual pilgrimage to the French capital,  out-of-towners in their Sunday bests studying city maps and metro routes.  For a few brief days the Paris street scene truly reflects French citizenry with scrubbed-up, hunky outdoors-men on their once-a-year holiday jostling harried and pale city dwellers on sidewalks and public transportation.

Once they've cleaned up their animals’ temporary shelters, fed and bedded cows and horses, these country folk let loose for a short night on town.  Intimidated - but at the same time excited - by the fast pace of the city, those who can pride themselves on providing France with quality farm products pour in droves into restaurants, theaters and cabarets.  At dawn they're again busy in stables and pens, getting their prize animals ready for another public performance.

THOUSANDS OF ANIMAL STARS

Some 3500 pampered animals representing 330 different races are the stars of the show  and compete for beauty and performance in the rings.  Entertainment by animals and humans is also on the program:  Guide dogs demonstrate their skills and horses and humans entertain visitors with various equestrian arts. 

This annual event also includes farm machinery, agricultural R&D and ecological techniques.  Milk farmers have set up a special enclosure for milking; cheese and wine makers are vying for the public’s attention; and French and foreign culinary specialities can be sampled on the spot.  Artifacts of leather and wool are on sale, as well as all kinds of canine articles from dry food to elegant leather leashes. And one can buy any gear or outfit one would ever need for equestrian sports.

“LEAN-COW YEAR” FOR FARMERS

The agriculture show of 2010 is not as joyous as usual, however.  It's been a bad year for farmers - or as the French (whose vernacular is always deeply rooted  in vocabulary pertaining to the land) call it : "une année de vaches maigres" (a year of lean cows).

Average agriculture revenues dropped in 2009 by a calamitous 34 %.  The previous year wasn't great either with a 20% decrease.  A liter of milk brought in 0,38€ in January 2008, for example. Now it's down to 0,27€ .  Only a little over one million French men and women are still making a living off farming, down from over 6 million in 1955.

The farmers feel sacrificed for many reasons.  Their bitterness towards the present government is acute and the fact that the President of France this year broke with the tradition of his predecessors and sent his Agriculture Minister to replace him for the inauguration of the Salon was considered a serious snub.