WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:06.919 When I think of those first night in my new apartment, 2 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:09.160 two floors above the cobbled Market Square, I pictured the 3 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:11.320 hush before dawn, the weary old stones held the echo 4 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:13.919 of the river, and how in early spring the quiet 5 00:00:13.919 --> 00:00:16.359 felt so deep he could almost hear time itself settling 6 00:00:16.359 --> 00:00:18.839 in for the night. After thirty four years in the 7 00:00:18.839 --> 00:00:21.960 same fluorescent late elementary class room, had finally traded suburban 8 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:24.760 noise for this rough red roof, tiles, lamb black shadows, 9 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:27.199 and windows that, when you opened them carefully lead in 10 00:00:27.239 --> 00:00:30.760 the sweet, slow scent of the river winding out toward fields. Laurel, 11 00:00:31.160 --> 00:00:33.079 my eldest, had worried, this will all be too much, 12 00:00:33.119 --> 00:00:35.679 too solitary, ma'am, not sol your age, no one to 13 00:00:35.679 --> 00:00:38.479 fuss over, But that was part of the charm. Retirement 14 00:00:38.520 --> 00:00:40.359 meant a certain empty space to finally fill on my 15 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:43.200 own terms, and this town half Folkhore, half history, with 16 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:46.240 its stubbornly painted bridge and little stone arcades, promised exactly that. 17 00:00:46.920 --> 00:00:49.679 On my fourth Tuesday and apartment, I awoke early before 18 00:00:49.719 --> 00:00:51.679 even the milt fun rolled through, jolted out of a 19 00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:55.000 soft dream about stack drawing paper and children's voices. The 20 00:00:55.079 --> 00:00:58.520 air felt unusually electric. I rose and padded towards the 21 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:01.240 front window, and more out of habit and expectation, tugging 22 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:05.280 on my red cardigan. The market plas lay shrouded in mist. Then, 23 00:01:05.560 --> 00:01:09.519 almost as I watched, the air shifted canvas boost bloomed themselves, open, 24 00:01:09.599 --> 00:01:12.400 colors sharp and improbable in the pale lifeponic's blue stripes 25 00:01:12.560 --> 00:01:16.480 saffron oxpood Men and women bustled among crates and baskets. 26 00:01:17.120 --> 00:01:19.760 They wore garments I had seen only in museum photographs, 27 00:01:19.799 --> 00:01:23.359 pleated skirts and warm felt hats, long aprons, jackets with 28 00:01:23.400 --> 00:01:27.680 impossibly tiny buttons. Children darted between their legs, trailing ribbons, 29 00:01:27.680 --> 00:01:30.680 and little wooden animals on wheels. I pressed my pond 30 00:01:30.719 --> 00:01:34.079 to the glass. Had I missed a town event? Every 31 00:01:34.079 --> 00:01:37.239 stoll brinned over. There were cold cheeses, dusted and ash, 32 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:40.560 and a pastry glistening with unfamiliar dark syrup. A butcher 33 00:01:40.560 --> 00:01:42.680 away cuts on a hand forged scale. The brass weights 34 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:46.319 battered and carefully shined. I saw pottery with patterns echoing 35 00:01:46.319 --> 00:01:48.560 the arch of the bridge and house tiles, carvings of 36 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:52.200 willow leaves and spiral river fish. Coins passed from bias 37 00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:54.640 to cellars, heavy dull, some with holes at the centers, 38 00:01:54.719 --> 00:01:58.200 unlike any had seen even on antique stalls. A tended 39 00:01:58.200 --> 00:02:01.079 corner boasted a hurdy gurdy. The tune twined up and 40 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:03.840 over the worn square, oddly formal, the scales turning back 41 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:06.680 on themselves with a catch and yawn. Several men knelt 42 00:02:06.719 --> 00:02:08.919 to stack cloth bound books, stradded with colored straying, the 43 00:02:08.919 --> 00:02:11.599 script on the covers looping, and her cake. The girl 44 00:02:11.639 --> 00:02:13.840 with a crown of woven grass handed out folded bits 45 00:02:13.840 --> 00:02:16.120 of paper when she laughed. It reminded me of may 46 00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:19.319 Day at the skull children tilting backward with joy. Every 47 00:02:19.319 --> 00:02:21.919 glance yielded some off kilt, a detailed soul set precisely 48 00:02:21.919 --> 00:02:24.280 along the seams of the ancient paving. Jaws of pickled 49 00:02:24.319 --> 00:02:26.759 things I couldn't name, A sudden whiff of woodsmook and honey. 50 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:29.879 I pulled on boots, heart quickening. There had been no 51 00:02:29.960 --> 00:02:32.439 mention of such a market in the town website, our guidebooks. 52 00:02:32.439 --> 00:02:35.360 Back in my London flat, not even em Lauren, my 53 00:02:35.400 --> 00:02:38.479 misodical landlord, had dropped so much as a hint. Had 54 00:02:38.520 --> 00:02:41.759 I missed some obscure tradition? My note book was already open, 55 00:02:41.879 --> 00:02:45.120 pen trembling slightly. As I reached for the door. Niune 56 00:02:45.120 --> 00:02:47.919 bell sanded from the river church, clear measured chines floating 57 00:02:47.960 --> 00:02:50.479 on the air. For only a moment, the market seemed 58 00:02:50.520 --> 00:02:52.560 to grow brighter, more jubilant. There was a swelling in 59 00:02:52.599 --> 00:02:54.719 the music, a bright flurry at the cheese stole, sudden 60 00:02:54.759 --> 00:02:57.319 laughing from the beaker's, And then by the time I 61 00:02:57.360 --> 00:02:59.639 reached the stairwell, perhaps two minutes. When I hurried down 62 00:02:59.639 --> 00:03:02.639 and turn onto the plaza stones, there was nothing the 63 00:03:02.680 --> 00:03:04.639 square I was bears ever, not so much as a 64 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:07.919 paper twisting along the garter. Not a single person lingered. 65 00:03:07.960 --> 00:03:10.719 Even the faint music was gone. I forced myself to 66 00:03:10.759 --> 00:03:13.240 walk the length of the plaza, checking under benches and 67 00:03:13.280 --> 00:03:16.039 behind lamp posts. Nothing but a faint warmth in the 68 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:18.360 air and a scatter of sunbeams on the stones, as 69 00:03:18.360 --> 00:03:21.360 though nothing unusual had happened at all. At first, I 70 00:03:21.400 --> 00:03:24.599 felt only wonder Surely I'd stumbled on too, a meticulously 71 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:27.759 preserved addition, a costume market, maybe staged for tourists but 72 00:03:27.840 --> 00:03:32.240 rarely advertised. Perhaps it was a private society event invitation only, 73 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:35.639 or a reenactment run for a film crew. These impossibilities 74 00:03:35.680 --> 00:03:38.919 thrilled me. It was just strange enough to invite curiosity, 75 00:03:39.080 --> 00:03:41.639 not anxiety. A puzzle wouldedge, just poking out, waiting for 76 00:03:41.680 --> 00:03:44.199 the rest of the pieces to fall into place. I 77 00:03:44.280 --> 00:03:46.960 resolved to be ready next time to learn what I could. 78 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:50.080 The rest of that morning, sunlights boiled through the plaza, 79 00:03:50.199 --> 00:03:53.159 and nothing out of the ordinary occurred. Daily life resumed 80 00:03:53.199 --> 00:03:55.560 as if the extraordinary bassal had been nothing but a figment. 81 00:03:55.599 --> 00:03:58.919 For I thought, an inexpert of French unrare vegetie. But 82 00:03:59.039 --> 00:04:01.840 dreams rarely smell cinnamon or leave your hands tingling with 83 00:04:01.879 --> 00:04:04.919 the possibility that something you've never studied is standing waiting 84 00:04:05.159 --> 00:04:09.319 just beyond the edge of explanation astoris astorus asterisk. By 85 00:04:09.319 --> 00:04:11.520 at at first market day's sunset, I gone some way 86 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:14.680 toward fitting myself into the patterns of town life. Retirement 87 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:16.879 had swelled up in the hours, but I organized the 88 00:04:16.920 --> 00:04:20.759 maholdover from years herding children into routines. The mornings, I 89 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:23.360 walked to the Riverside Bakery, where Madame Schev would call 90 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:25.360 me my braving glaze and hand me a dense sour 91 00:04:25.480 --> 00:04:28.680 dough with caraway. On alternate days, I picked up eggs 92 00:04:28.720 --> 00:04:31.680 or soft cheese from the groceries and rudestelors, and sometimes 93 00:04:31.720 --> 00:04:34.439 took the longer way home by the bridge, watching sunlight 94 00:04:34.439 --> 00:04:37.680 flare off the water beneath its stubbornly original arches. At 95 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:40.439 the little brick Library, i'd struck up conversation with the librarian, 96 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:44.399 Madam Palladier. There I led the local history club spring cycle, 97 00:04:44.439 --> 00:04:47.439 half a dozen retirees, hungry for gossip, disguised as heritage, 98 00:04:47.519 --> 00:04:50.360 eager to correct my pronunciations or point out minor inaccuracies 99 00:04:50.360 --> 00:04:53.199 in old to a scripts. My modest apartment two rooms 100 00:04:53.199 --> 00:04:55.839 plus an alcove with crumbling plaster roses on the ceiling 101 00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:59.120 became a comfortable perch each week. But club met in 102 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:02.040 the bakeriess upstairs jewey box room courses, melting into crumbs 103 00:05:02.040 --> 00:05:06.720 over dogg eared French mysteries. My landlord, Monsieur Lawrance, was practical, unflappable, 104 00:05:06.839 --> 00:05:10.199 and used to disappointment to all buildings are always surprising, Madam, 105 00:05:10.279 --> 00:05:12.839 he'd say, adjusting his wire hoot glasses before heading off 106 00:05:12.839 --> 00:05:16.360 to chase leaks or replace another window sash. The other tenants, 107 00:05:16.360 --> 00:05:18.319 except for a pair of sisters on the first floor 108 00:05:18.680 --> 00:05:22.399 rotated seasonally. The sisters themselves, Colett and Vivienne, were inseparable, 109 00:05:22.439 --> 00:05:24.759 the sort who finished one another stories with a gesture 110 00:05:24.759 --> 00:05:27.480 in a sigh. Max, a high school student from the 111 00:05:27.519 --> 00:05:30.199 North neighborhood, pensured me how to extract voice messages from 112 00:05:30.199 --> 00:05:33.000 the newerphone, and sometimes ran errands in exchange for biscuits 113 00:05:33.000 --> 00:05:36.360 and practiced English. There was a social membrane greetings on 114 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:38.839 the plaza, small jokes, the exchange of morning news and 115 00:05:38.839 --> 00:05:41.079 family updates that let you know you belonged, but never 116 00:05:41.160 --> 00:05:43.959 drowned you in obligation. The town itself moved with the 117 00:05:44.040 --> 00:05:47.000 rhythm of memory, of preservation. Society devoted to bridge stones, 118 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:49.959 clubs occupying the attic rooms above the library, plaques marking 119 00:05:49.959 --> 00:05:53.079 which dignitaries had dined there. When the church bell sounded 120 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:55.240 at noon, a hush always followed, a ripple of reverence 121 00:05:55.279 --> 00:05:57.800 for the hour, not quite religious, but waited with implication. 122 00:05:58.439 --> 00:06:01.439 And yet something in the air resisted per knowing I'd 123 00:06:01.480 --> 00:06:04.360 noticed over tea with Madame Scheve or while sorting museum 124 00:06:04.360 --> 00:06:07.079 pamphlets that references to market day were common in springtime. 125 00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:09.639 Chatter will see him at market Day, or the weathers 126 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:12.160 never so fair as on the fourth Tuesday. I was 127 00:06:12.199 --> 00:06:14.879 told these were ordinary craft fairs, simple events, you know, 128 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:18.519 a few tables by the fountain, nothing extravagant, the sisters insisted, 129 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:22.040 waving away any suggestion of spectacle. M Lawren kept a calendar, 130 00:06:22.120 --> 00:06:24.240 neat and hand detailed on the building's entry wall. It 131 00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:26.560 marks Saint's days and council meetings, but not a single 132 00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:29.839 Tuesday market. The town's blend of pass and present murmured 133 00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:33.199 with a kind of intent. Doors bore ironwrich designs echoing 134 00:06:33.240 --> 00:06:37.000 the bridge. No shops saw postcards with lost landmarks depicted 135 00:06:37.040 --> 00:06:39.399 as if they were still in situ. When I pressed 136 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:41.839 for explanations why the north o'cavee resembled a boat hull, 137 00:06:41.959 --> 00:06:44.439 or whether any of the bakery recipes truly stretched back 138 00:06:44.439 --> 00:06:46.279 to the ear of the first flood, I was met 139 00:06:46.319 --> 00:06:49.399 with laughter and stories that circled back on themselves. I 140 00:06:49.519 --> 00:06:53.000 felt those first weeks a gentle outsiders long, not quite exclusion, 141 00:06:53.160 --> 00:06:55.160 but a sense that I was following a pattern everyone 142 00:06:55.199 --> 00:06:59.000 else already understood. However, unconsciously I kept my own company 143 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:01.160 well enough, but curious elst he breathed itself into my 144 00:07:01.199 --> 00:07:03.519 solitary walks in the quiet after book club. Why had 145 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:05.879 no one mentioned at market so elaborate, so eerily stitched 146 00:07:05.879 --> 00:07:07.560 into the town's fabric that even they have seemed to 147 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:10.680 have changed. Why did the ground remember nothing by mid day, 148 00:07:11.360 --> 00:07:14.879 yet surrounded by decesis, comforting repetition of town routines, I 149 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:17.800 found my knees to solving into fascination. If it was 150 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:20.199 a game, I would play, if it was a secret, 151 00:07:20.279 --> 00:07:23.439 I would find the scene astuurus faster as faster risque. 152 00:07:23.959 --> 00:07:26.199 That afternoon I brought it up lightly as a curious 153 00:07:26.199 --> 00:07:29.079 aside over coffee at the Cafe Doo Via Pont. M 154 00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:31.160 Lauren had joined me for a hasty bite before seeing 155 00:07:31.199 --> 00:07:33.959 to the roof, and Haley, my closest friend from the museum, 156 00:07:34.079 --> 00:07:36.639 had paused at the table to rest her feet. Did 157 00:07:36.639 --> 00:07:40.079 you see the market this morning, i asked, affecting casualness. 158 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:43.279 All those wonderful old costumes, the music. I think they'd 159 00:07:43.319 --> 00:07:45.399 even had a working hurdy gurdy. No one told me 160 00:07:45.439 --> 00:07:50.199 the fair stretch, the whole plaza. Halene's face brightened with recognition. Oh, 161 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:52.240 the market. I always look for the cheese muchant he 162 00:07:52.279 --> 00:07:54.480 brings in a war sheep's cheese you can't find otherwise. 163 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:56.639 And didn't you notice the pottery with the bridge cress? 164 00:07:56.680 --> 00:07:58.759 So quaint I bought a mug the two years ago, 165 00:07:58.920 --> 00:08:01.519 still of it at the house, she laughed, turning to 166 00:08:01.680 --> 00:08:04.759 m Laurent. You are always first to the blue pottery stall. 167 00:08:05.319 --> 00:08:08.240 He nodded, tipping his cup. You cannot miss that stall 168 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:10.600 last time. The old woman's hold me a bread basket 169 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:12.959 that same pattern as the manhow covers you know? She 170 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:15.240 calls it the always river design. I meant to ask 171 00:08:15.279 --> 00:08:18.560 if anyone still makes the cloth it's based on, I blinked, 172 00:08:18.920 --> 00:08:21.360 So it really is a regular thing. The fourth Tuesday, 173 00:08:21.920 --> 00:08:25.920 Helene grinned, since before my grandmother's time. Sometimes it's bigger, 174 00:08:26.040 --> 00:08:28.800 sometimes just a handful of stalls, but always something unique 175 00:08:28.839 --> 00:08:32.120 turns up. She ticked off examples without paws, the ribbon 176 00:08:32.159 --> 00:08:34.559 pastries and not vendor with the best candied tazel nuts 177 00:08:34.600 --> 00:08:37.399 in the department. Their faces bore the soft smugness of 178 00:08:37.399 --> 00:08:41.000 people enjoying the memory of their own traditions. Yet when 179 00:08:41.000 --> 00:08:43.559 I drifted north along the plaza after lunch, I stopped 180 00:08:43.559 --> 00:08:45.360 into the newsagents to buy milk and brought up the 181 00:08:45.399 --> 00:08:50.080 morning's festivities. Jean the newsagent Franz sympathetically, Ye, mean the 182 00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:53.320 spring market. No, madam, not until next month. Maybe you 183 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:56.279 saw workmen They repaired the paving every so often at 184 00:08:56.320 --> 00:08:59.480 the bakery. Madam shiver giggled, hands busy. But I shop 185 00:09:00.159 --> 00:09:02.759 past to Marches Marchier. The square was quiet as a mass. 186 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:06.840 Are you dreaming already a festival season? Confuse? I circled back, 187 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:09.759 only to discover that Helene, when cornered in the museum 188 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:12.240 Salle three hours later, seemed unsure what I referred to. 189 00:09:12.480 --> 00:09:15.039 Did I say there was a market this morning? No? No, 190 00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:17.639 you must have misunderstood. I would never be up that early. 191 00:09:17.679 --> 00:09:20.519 My knees, you know, at my age. When I pressed 192 00:09:20.519 --> 00:09:23.200 the point mentioning her favorite cheese seller, she shrugged and 193 00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:26.080 suggested the heat had gone to my head. M Laurent, 194 00:09:26.200 --> 00:09:28.759 when I encountered him in the hallway, was similarly evasive. 195 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:32.320 Ah ye, English, you expect every week to be a holiday. Eh? 196 00:09:32.360 --> 00:09:35.000 There are stalls? Yes? Sometimes? Did you remember to leave 197 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:37.879 your window open for fresh air? Unable to pin down 198 00:09:37.919 --> 00:09:40.399 even those who had remembered with me, I tried another attack. 199 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:43.879 That night. I combed the local papers online archive, searched 200 00:09:43.879 --> 00:09:46.480 for Tuesday Market and costume fare, and checked the council 201 00:09:46.519 --> 00:09:49.720 web sites eventlesstings for a fourth Tuesday entry. The only 202 00:09:49.759 --> 00:09:52.399 thing close was mentioned of a springtime f des Artisans 203 00:09:52.440 --> 00:09:54.360 in May, but it bore none of the distinctive features 204 00:09:54.360 --> 00:09:57.879 I'd witnessed. The square itself stood empty under the street lights, 205 00:09:57.879 --> 00:10:01.279 the stones undisturbed, the benches clean, no candy wrapper or 206 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:03.399 not at Rebin, not even an impression in the dust 207 00:10:03.399 --> 00:10:06.840 were stall might have stood. The contradiction wormed its way deeper. 208 00:10:07.440 --> 00:10:10.679 My own memory was solid. Peculiarity was not a lack 209 00:10:10.679 --> 00:10:13.399 of evidence, but at its joint and collective recal conversations, 210 00:10:13.440 --> 00:10:15.879 feering one way in the morning and another in the afternoon, 211 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:18.759 as if some invisible tight had turned. I couldn't shake 212 00:10:18.759 --> 00:10:21.519 the sense that every one's certainty was balanced on something fragile, 213 00:10:21.559 --> 00:10:24.240 prone to tilt at the faintest question. I set myself 214 00:10:24.279 --> 00:10:26.240 a task. As I had softened in the class room, 215 00:10:26.440 --> 00:10:28.919 next time I would record, I would witness. I would 216 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:31.159 make the ephemeral last long enough to prove to myself, 217 00:10:31.200 --> 00:10:32.600 if not to every one else, that I had not 218 00:10:32.639 --> 00:10:36.039 simply dreamed the market through an open window. Asterisk asters 219 00:10:36.120 --> 00:10:39.120 asterisk a month slipped away, the day's swelling into peny 220 00:10:39.120 --> 00:10:41.039 blossoms and a perfume of damp clay from the river 221 00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:44.279 banks before the fourth Tuesday came around again. This time, 222 00:10:44.320 --> 00:10:48.559 preparation was methodical. My camera charged and checked, my sturdy 223 00:10:48.559 --> 00:10:51.960 note book, new graphite pencil page predated full at the 224 00:10:51.960 --> 00:10:54.960 read eat to record. I even raked a kitchen timer 225 00:10:55.000 --> 00:10:57.279 for five fifteen a m. One hour before sun rise, 226 00:10:57.279 --> 00:11:00.120 to ensure I would catch even the earliest stirrings. The 227 00:11:00.120 --> 00:11:02.440 minute the first blank scraped stone below my window, I 228 00:11:02.480 --> 00:11:05.600 was awakened. Ready. The sounds of setting up this time 229 00:11:05.879 --> 00:11:08.559 felt sharper, as if as spectation itself sharpened the world. 230 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:11.240 I dressed quickly and settled at my wonder of camera 231 00:11:11.279 --> 00:11:13.919 lens pressed to the glass. Nope, but balance on my knee. 232 00:11:14.360 --> 00:11:18.480 The market assembled in swift, organized chaos. Tens unfurled with ease, 233 00:11:18.559 --> 00:11:21.480 stalls fitted with bolt's conjured from pockets, gold leaf signs 234 00:11:21.519 --> 00:11:24.200 slid on too hooks with casual precision. The stalls seemed 235 00:11:24.200 --> 00:11:27.440 realer than before, perhaps because I now anticipated their impossibility. 236 00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:29.960 I lit the camera strap around my rest and set 237 00:11:30.000 --> 00:11:32.360 out with more confidence than before, prepared to blend an 238 00:11:32.360 --> 00:11:34.600 if indeed, a tourist could blend him with the pageant 239 00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:37.600 of the past. As I crossed the square, voices mingled 240 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:39.679 the butcher in the lin an apron discussing sheep breeds. 241 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:42.080 I'd only read about tin textbooks the old Gray Noses 242 00:11:42.200 --> 00:11:45.159 from before the flood years Potter displaying palely bolls, thickly 243 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:47.320 painted with a bridge that didn't match the carer and structure, 244 00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:49.759 a woman's licing dark crye cakes, and offering ukerns. The 245 00:11:49.759 --> 00:11:52.519 sweet had never tasted, said to be the sister's favorite. 246 00:11:52.519 --> 00:11:55.399 At the Old Feast, one stall caught my eye immediately, 247 00:11:55.399 --> 00:11:58.759 a woodcovered table fisted with miniature boats, masters sail stripe 248 00:11:58.759 --> 00:12:01.960 with painted insignia. I recognized them only dimly from a 249 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.840 genealogy jarred in the museum's tank basement, families lost to 250 00:12:04.879 --> 00:12:07.799 the Great River Flood three centuries ago. When I asked 251 00:12:07.840 --> 00:12:10.440 him about the cymbals, he leaned in, smelling a fresh 252 00:12:10.440 --> 00:12:14.279 cut cedar. Ah Madam, the river remembers every one you know. 253 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:16.799 Some names float, some sink to days for those who 254 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:20.759 floated back. He offered me the smallest boat, smiling at trade. 255 00:12:20.840 --> 00:12:23.120 Next time you bring me a story, I give you another. 256 00:12:23.720 --> 00:12:26.559 I recorded his voice, noting the cagence and the peculiar 257 00:12:26.559 --> 00:12:28.919 little rhyme he sang under his breath, for all who sail, 258 00:12:29.159 --> 00:12:32.000 and all who men, The river's bogain never ends. The 259 00:12:32.039 --> 00:12:34.679 same hand I noticed had lighted his prices in an 260 00:12:34.679 --> 00:12:37.720 odd lipping script, one I'd seen only in museum captions 261 00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:41.559 for eighteen century civic records. Children ran past, skiffing a 262 00:12:41.559 --> 00:12:44.519 game that involved sudden stops and shouted phrases and dialect French. 263 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:46.600 I barely traced its snatches of which match stands of 264 00:12:46.639 --> 00:12:49.679 fragments from a half lost reversalmme. Each time the wind 265 00:12:49.720 --> 00:12:52.320 caught their rubens, they sang out four quarters to the market, 266 00:12:52.440 --> 00:12:55.559 four turns round the sun. I circled the entire plausa, 267 00:12:55.639 --> 00:12:58.600 capturing photos the cobbles and a foot reflecting early light, 268 00:12:58.639 --> 00:13:00.440 a basket of eggs, the blue black off crows, a 269 00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:02.759 sceinstress who insisted her cloth board of old pattern of 270 00:13:02.799 --> 00:13:05.440 the missing street. I record the snippets of a hurdy 271 00:13:05.480 --> 00:13:08.000 gurdy melody is at wind, mournful, joyful around the stalls, 272 00:13:08.039 --> 00:13:12.039 the refrain uncannily familiar. Everywhere the material world felt both 273 00:13:12.039 --> 00:13:14.840 alive and out of step. The foods cakes with poppy 274 00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:17.039 and bitter orange, as noted in a museum mentioned but 275 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:20.039 absent from every modern bakery. The good set of tin 276 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:22.519 caps featuring a building long ago replaced by the library, 277 00:13:22.519 --> 00:13:26.080 its windows clobed with painted children's faces. Conversations with the 278 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:29.639 vendors grew even more curious. They didn't speak like re enactors, 279 00:13:29.720 --> 00:13:33.279 unconcerned with context. When I asked the sausage cellar about 280 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:35.799 his prices of such old coins, are they really accepted? 281 00:13:35.879 --> 00:13:38.480 He winked. On this day, all thats are honored, even 282 00:13:38.519 --> 00:13:41.919 the old ones. Another, the glove venda, explained her whares 283 00:13:41.919 --> 00:13:44.200 with pride from the old tanner on Rue Deus signy. 284 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:47.120 My mother traded embroidery for these. Everyone here remembers the trades. 285 00:13:47.759 --> 00:13:50.240 I quick jotted her words, the camera set to record audio, 286 00:13:50.279 --> 00:13:53.840 thinking i'd corroborate the detail later. While late morning, exhausted 287 00:13:53.840 --> 00:13:57.200 by sensory overload, I retreated to my window. There I 288 00:13:57.279 --> 00:14:01.159 painstakingly cataloged every image, audio snips, and hand written noticed 289 00:14:01.159 --> 00:14:04.279 skuld dates, details, the word and faces keen as glass 290 00:14:04.279 --> 00:14:07.240 in memory. As Nune approached, I checked the photos. Each 291 00:14:07.240 --> 00:14:10.799 were oddly distorted. Some overexposed, others fading into greeny blanks. 292 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:15.480 The sun fills glitched, leaping into legible waves. Even stranger, 293 00:14:15.559 --> 00:14:18.360 as I watched the handwriting in my notebooks seem to lighten, graphite, 294 00:14:18.399 --> 00:14:20.519 fading as if the words were being drawn up by sunlight, 295 00:14:20.559 --> 00:14:23.639 the paper going stiff and pale. My list of stole names, 296 00:14:23.759 --> 00:14:26.120 the coppied rhyme, all but the first stanzas of children's 297 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:30.279 songs disappearing before my eyes. Downstairs, I heard church bells. 298 00:14:30.879 --> 00:14:33.360 By the time they finished, I glanced out, not a 299 00:14:33.399 --> 00:14:37.240 single soul in the square. Were only minutes before vibrant color, sound, 300 00:14:37.320 --> 00:14:39.279 and bustling life had pressed in, There was now bare 301 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:42.440 stone and drifting dust. I went immediately to the bakery, 302 00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:44.879 and over lunch tried the same tactic as last month. 303 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:48.399 Madame Schefer, slicing her usual cheese, denied anything but her 304 00:14:48.399 --> 00:14:52.279 own routine. To day is only Tuesday, no market, Madam may, perhaps, 305 00:14:52.480 --> 00:14:55.360 but not now. When I presented her with the notebook, 306 00:14:55.399 --> 00:14:58.000 empty but of a single scratch line, always four turns round, 307 00:14:58.120 --> 00:15:00.960 she tuttered sympathetically, getting older, not what is cracked up 308 00:15:00.960 --> 00:15:04.080 to be? Eh. I tried Haileen again, this time showing 309 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:07.480 her the corrupted photos. She only smiled, offering to refill 310 00:15:07.480 --> 00:15:09.480 my coffee and admonishing me not to let the dreams 311 00:15:09.519 --> 00:15:12.639 out On the days, Frustrated, I visited Joan at the 312 00:15:12.639 --> 00:15:15.600 news end, Maxim the alley, the sisters with their embroidered shawls. 313 00:15:16.320 --> 00:15:20.519 Every practical check failed. My evidence so methodically assembled, dissolved 314 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:24.159 to nothing. Each person showed puzzlement, but not alarm. No 315 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:26.600 one seemed inclined to join my investigation or even probe 316 00:15:26.600 --> 00:15:29.120 the oddity. It was as if the market existed at 317 00:15:29.120 --> 00:15:32.080 the periphery of collective attention, possible taxis only in passing 318 00:15:32.159 --> 00:15:35.440 impossible to retain. That night, I reviewed all that remained. 319 00:15:35.440 --> 00:15:37.480 One snatch of a melody humming faintly in my mind, 320 00:15:37.559 --> 00:15:39.799 a ribbon stray caught on a window sill, the impression 321 00:15:39.799 --> 00:15:42.720 of a blue ball soft as a shadow. My curiosity 322 00:15:42.720 --> 00:15:44.960 had become something else, not quite the hunt for proof, 323 00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:48.600 but chase after meaning. Was it also elaborate joke on outsiders, 324 00:15:48.799 --> 00:15:51.120 or less likely but more thrilling, a phenomenon bound not 325 00:15:51.200 --> 00:15:54.759 by wreckers or rituals, but by attention itself. Could it 326 00:15:54.759 --> 00:15:57.320 be that by trying to capture it I was dismissing whatever, 327 00:15:57.360 --> 00:16:00.720 let it happen at all. I refined my question. Did 328 00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:02.840 the marquet only appear for the new rivals, or was 329 00:16:02.879 --> 00:16:06.240 there another pattern, something older, deeper? If it depended on 330 00:16:06.279 --> 00:16:09.559 my own noticing, was I part of the mechanism? That night, 331 00:16:09.639 --> 00:16:12.159 I resolved to test the boundaries of the custom, whatever 332 00:16:12.200 --> 00:16:16.840 it was, asturis astoris asterisk. I approached the task next month, 333 00:16:16.840 --> 00:16:18.919 with all the patients the decade of teaching seven year 334 00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:21.159 olds had honed in me. I would not simply document. 335 00:16:21.159 --> 00:16:23.200 I would dig a knot as an outsider, but as 336 00:16:23.240 --> 00:16:25.679 one with some stake, no matter how tenuous, in the 337 00:16:25.679 --> 00:16:28.639 tangle's gain of local memory. Rather than haunt in the 338 00:16:28.679 --> 00:16:31.320 market square, I started in the museum's archive, a cold 339 00:16:31.399 --> 00:16:33.559 dust brush cellar that smelled of dry glue and disused 340 00:16:33.600 --> 00:16:37.000 card catalogs. The town's history was not, as it turned out, 341 00:16:37.159 --> 00:16:40.679 all perfectly preserved. There were gaps and contradictions. A smudge 342 00:16:40.720 --> 00:16:44.080 festival calendar here, a water damage council minute there. I 343 00:16:44.159 --> 00:16:46.480 began with old time lines, a hand drawn year chart 344 00:16:46.559 --> 00:16:49.559 hung with colored threats. In the seventeenth and most of 345 00:16:49.600 --> 00:16:51.879 the eighteenth centuries, there was indeed a reference to a 346 00:16:51.879 --> 00:16:54.679 Midsimer Grand Marches, Yemence and Lively, famous through the region 347 00:16:54.720 --> 00:16:57.639 for settling not only trade accounts, but marriages, border disputes, 348 00:16:57.840 --> 00:17:01.799 and unresolved freckenings. But something odd emerged as the years advanced. 349 00:17:02.480 --> 00:17:05.039 In some decades the central square was labeled on a 350 00:17:05.079 --> 00:17:08.720 squall Grand Market Parvis, but in years following the catastrophic 351 00:17:08.759 --> 00:17:12.480 sixteen seventy two flawed the label vanished. In other places 352 00:17:12.519 --> 00:17:15.440 the record was blank, or the square replaced with pocket silence, 353 00:17:15.640 --> 00:17:19.359 once even grieving stones. The market was at best a 354 00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:23.640 moving target, sometimes a civic institution, sometimes in absence. One 355 00:17:23.640 --> 00:17:26.119 clipping from an eighteen eighties broadsheet marked the last official 356 00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:29.079 Midsum affair, then appended innked in small at more private handwriting. 357 00:17:29.240 --> 00:17:31.240 Still on the right day, you may find what you seek. 358 00:17:31.759 --> 00:17:34.119 In the museum stairwell. I paused at a painted panel 359 00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:38.119 mid nineteenth century that had always puzzled locals. Market stalls 360 00:17:38.119 --> 00:17:40.720 glowed under a sky split with cloud and light. The 361 00:17:40.799 --> 00:17:43.839 crowd at first was generic, faces blurred with the paint's age, 362 00:17:44.319 --> 00:17:46.480 But the longer I looked, the more I recognized them, 363 00:17:46.640 --> 00:17:49.599 not just from local legends but from daily life. There 364 00:17:49.680 --> 00:17:52.960 was Madame Shev's arch cheekbones, M Lawrence slouch, even what 365 00:17:53.000 --> 00:17:56.279 looked like Max's half cock smiling, possibly absurdly rendered in 366 00:17:56.319 --> 00:18:00.000 a painting over a century old, still the most confounding evidence, 367 00:18:00.079 --> 00:18:03.200 kim laid and partial, as genuine discovery often does in 368 00:18:03.240 --> 00:18:05.680 a water stain genealogy from a cellar box. I trace 369 00:18:05.759 --> 00:18:07.599 the names hand painted on the toy boats, the same 370 00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:10.079 as in the market families otherwise absent from every time 371 00:18:10.200 --> 00:18:13.640 registered post, flawed, as if the vanished one still populated 372 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:16.039 some parallel roll call at the edges of official memory. 373 00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:19.279 Embarrassed by my growing obsession, I almost missed a visiting 374 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:23.119 historians card, slid into the librari's in books. Doctor Jeremy Simes, Oxford, 375 00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:26.839 phocal scholar seeking persistent traditions. We met in the museum's 376 00:18:26.839 --> 00:18:28.880 call in a parlor. I told my story my brain, 377 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:31.400 arranging the contradictions and order, careful to present it as 378 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:36.279 an oddity, not symptom. Doctor Symes Stocky Engenil listened without interruption. 379 00:18:36.920 --> 00:18:39.319 This is not so unusual as you might think. Ms 380 00:18:39.319 --> 00:18:42.400 Hawley's theorecase is more minor, but suggestive of a song. 381 00:18:42.519 --> 00:18:45.680 Sometimes even in old procession local memory outlive's official record. 382 00:18:45.799 --> 00:18:48.920 Sometimes it grows stronger where physical proof of rords I 383 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:51.799 insisted on the impossibility. Coins that should be in museums, 384 00:18:52.039 --> 00:18:55.240 recipes are recorded since the library fire of nineteen twenty eight, 385 00:18:55.279 --> 00:18:58.960 children's games lost to every documentation, He mused. But perhaps 386 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:00.920 you are not witnessing a mother at all. Perhaps you're 387 00:19:00.920 --> 00:19:03.799 seeing a memory so densely woven it refreshes itself given 388 00:19:03.839 --> 00:19:07.519 the right conditions, I frowned. So it's just my mind 389 00:19:07.680 --> 00:19:10.039 or a mass hallucination. The children, why do they know 390 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:12.559 games that don't even survive in their own family stories? 391 00:19:13.079 --> 00:19:16.960 He shrugged, eyes glittering. Memory is not solely personal, nor 392 00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:19.359 is it absolute. There are places, whole villages, even where 393 00:19:19.359 --> 00:19:22.720 a story retold enough will surface, resisting oblivine, weaving itsself 394 00:19:22.759 --> 00:19:26.359 into custom. Some call at communal echoing, some call at fuco. Sometimes, 395 00:19:26.400 --> 00:19:29.839 if a tradition matters deeply enough, a community resumes it unconsciously, 396 00:19:29.839 --> 00:19:33.400 at least for a handful. Suddenly the pieces re arranged themselves. 397 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:36.079 I was less interested in whether the market could be 398 00:19:36.119 --> 00:19:38.279 proved by camera or a notebook, and more in whether 399 00:19:38.319 --> 00:19:41.119 my own presence is witness matted at all? Had I 400 00:19:41.240 --> 00:19:43.160 outside her as I was stumbled upon a seam in 401 00:19:43.160 --> 00:19:45.400