![]() ![]() When you go there you will discover it looks like an urban council building on entry, with an air of municipal swimming pool about it. St Omer was an important centre of learning and the collection once belonged to the important and currently being restored Jesuit College that adjoins the library. A hidden gem, recently a First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays was discovered on its heaving shelves of about 35,000 ancient books some of which go back as far as the 7 th Century. In fact St Omer is a real foodie town with a huge choice of places to enjoy local cuisine from estaminet style with a Flemish influence to full on haute cuisine.Īfter the market try the Drie Kalders (18 Place du Marechal Foch) which has a lovely ambience with plenty to look at on the walls and ceiling! Push the boat out at the ever popular Le Cygne, on a fine day you can sit outside or enjoy the elegant interior (8 Rue Caventou). L’Histoire de Laurent Bogé (1 rue Henri Dupuis) serves delicious local, organic produce.ĭon’t miss the St Omer library while you’re there (40 Rue Gambetta). This road is also known locally as rue des gourmets thanks to the number of restaurants, bars, brasseries and cafés that line each side. Lush, shiny and beautiful fruit and vegetables are in abundance here and if you pop into the little rue Louis Martel, just off the main square you’ll find it’s not just the bigger producers who tempt you but green fingered locals selling produce from their gardens on kitchen tables brought from home. There are around 13000 farms in the region so buying fresh, seasonal and local veg is never a problem. Much is grown locally on the enormous marshes, famous for its vegetable growing properties, indeed this is the cauliflower capital of France producing some 7 million a year. Spilling out onto the winding little alleys around the square this is quite a sizeable market where you can buy food, household goods and clothes, but for me it’s the vegetables that you can get here that make this a stand out market. St Omer is about 30 minutes from Calais and the market is a big draw. The majestic Church of Notre Dame looms over everything and is well worth a visit, especially if you are a Rubens fan since there is stunning painting by the great artist there as well as many other beautiful artworks. Many of the houses in the old part of town date back more than 300 years, and there’s a museum with an impressive clay pipe and pottery collection that reflects the life of this town. It’s a very old city with a very long history. Surrounded by cafés and bars whose chairs spread out onto the wide pavement you feel as if you are are almost sitting in the market itself on a Saturday morning. The market takes place on the cobbled Grand Place (Place du Marechal Foch), a brilliant place to sit and watch the world go by and enjoy this elegant square heaving with activity. Behind every word, and every gaze, between the breaths and in the tears of these women, Alice Diop reveals the hidden monsters of the past.Saint-Omer is a lovely northern French rural town and a perfect weekend destination it’s also where a great Saturday morning market is held, one that lovers of French markets will adore. Saint Omer is based on a real court case that the director attended, and puts on trial both the protagonist and the whole experience of migrant African women in a post-colonial France. With this character the acclaimed documentary director Alice Diop (Nous, IndieLisboa 2021), writes herself, her background and her creative gaze into her first narrative feature. Another black woman, a writer, a daughter of a Senegalese migrant woman and a mother-to-be is in the courtroom, looking for a way to tell the story of the modern day Medea. She confirms she has done the did, but pleads not guilty. A Senegalese migrant is accused of murdering her 15-month-old daughter. A black woman is on trial in a French court. ![]()
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