The Lille Braderie, postponed due to the Paris Games, opens this Saturday

The calendar has been shifted by two weeks. The Braderie de Lille, one of the largest flea markets in Europe that attracts nearly 2.5 million visitors each year, opened on Saturday morning, two weeks later than usual because of the Paris Paralympic Games.

Despite this delay, announced in January 2023 by the mayor of Lille Martine Aubry, “no one is missing, everyone is there”, the mayor rejoiced Friday morning on France Bleu Nord, specifying that 5,500 exhibitors were expected, including “half of the residents, 2,000 traders and 545 second-hand dealers and antique dealers”.

Although officially banned before the start of the sale on Saturday at 8 a.m., sales began on Friday in certain pedestrian areas of the city, an AFP journalist noted.

Since 2017, the sale of any new product or object (except in permanent stores) has been “strictly prohibited”, with the city presenting the event as “the largest European showcase for reuse”.

3,000 agents mobilized for security

As 500 tonnes of mussels will be devoured over the weekend, Lille is inviting restaurateurs to make piles of mussels within the perimeter of the sale and to report them so that they can be recycled.

As for unsold food, it will be distributed on Monday at noon during a “large solidarity meal”, organized by the city with associations, traders and restaurateurs.

The event, the scope of which was reduced after the Nice attack in 2016, also has a major security stake: “3,000 state agents (police, gendarmes, customs officers, military) will be mobilized,” the Nord prefecture indicated on Friday.

In addition, 626 concrete blocks and 1,550 barriers secure access to the perimeter of the sale.

Users have expressed fears that the disorder is coming from public transport, whose operation has been degraded for several weeks due to maintenance problems amid suspicions of asbestos.

While car traffic is prohibited in the vicinity of the flea market, trains on metro line 2 will run every 2 minutes 45 seconds, said Ilevia, the public transport network of the Lille metropolitan area. In 2023, the frequency of trains on the same line was between 1 minute 30 and 2 minutes during the day.