Braderie de lille

La Braderie de Lille is one of the biggest sellers in Europe and it takes place in Lille the first weekend of September, it is preceded by a half-marathon on Saturday morning then officially starts at 1 p.m to finish Sunday at 11 p.m without interruption.

Throughout the weekend, there are 10 000 exhibition including 300 professional dealers spread over a hundread kilometers to fill nearly 3 milions visitors present to sell and buy on an incredible flea market. The city in then transformed into a huge pedestrian zone both commercial and festive with the presence of a carnaval and more than a hundred attractions.

The traditionnal dish of the clearance sale is « mussels and fries », during the period of the clearance sale, all restaurants in the city serve it, usually accompanied by a locar beer and dumb the empty mussel shells in front of their establishment to form the hightest pile of empty shells in the hope of winning the informal contest of the clearance sale. 500 tons of mussels and 30 tons of frensh fries are tasted each year, which makes the market a great gastronomic celebration.