New mattresses for old

Every French town with a population of more than about two thousand has its weekly market and Mrs S finds them almost irresistible, although I am more than happy to avoid them. If I must go with her, I usually manage to lose her in the crowd fairly quickly and wait for her in my regular bar.

But there is one thing that has always puzzled me about those markets. It doesn’t matter what size they are, whether there are just a dozen or so stalls or whether there are a couple of hundred, you can guarantee that at one end of the street, sometimes at both ends, there will be a man with mattresses laid out at his feet. I can understand that butchers and fishmongers, greengrocers and haberdashers will expect to find customers every week, but is there really such a large market for mattresses, I wonder?  Is it really possible that Frenchmen (or Frenchwomen, for that matter) could wear out their mattresses any quicker than Englishmen? Do they use them as trampolines?  How much energy do French people put into their sex games to cause such a turnover of mattresses?

Not mattresses, but garlic in the market at Chateaubriant.  Unfortunately, we only saw him that once.  His garlic was very good and very reasonable in price.