Street Vendor

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Paris is filled with street vendors. Some of them are legal, some aren’t. Common items offered for sale include snack foods, toys and trinkets, jewelry, and the like. Vendors in front of major department stores often sell household gadgets and small items of clothing as well. Cities like Paris are so densely populated that street vendors can readily make a living on almost any major street, as long as they are selling something of at least moderate interest to passerby.

The photo above shows a very typical, legal street vendor, selling a very typical item for such vendors: caramelized almonds and peanuts, an extremely popular snack among Parisians. This particular vendor also sells roasted chestnuts (which is quite common) and baked corn on the cob (somewhat less common, although more popular than it used to be), during the cool months of the year, including the month during which this photo was taken. Like many of the legitimate Parisian street vendors, this woman has been selling her wares at the same location on the same street for years. Most customers are residents of the city, but occasionally tourists buy things, too. As you can see, this vendor prepares what she sells on the spot: she uses a copper double boiler to candy peanuts and almonds, and the device in the foreground for roasting peanuts and corn. On a good day a vendor can sell snacks as fast as he or she can make them, although I suspect that most days aren’t busy enough to merit continuous preparation.

This photo was taken on a chilly evening in October, at dusk. The lure of the brightly-lit stand with fresh, toasty peanuts and other munchies is irresistible at times like this, but the smell of candy, chestnuts, and corn roasting away brings in people at all times.

After taking this photo I could not resist getting some candied almonds myself.

Photographed on October 4, 2001.