Friday Martsi

The idea for Friday Martsi was born in early 2013 in the heart of the Charolais-Brionnais bocage. Residents of Saint Julien-de-Civry and the surrounding villages decided to sit down and reinvent their rural lifestyle:
Our dream was that nourishing ourselves (body and soul) would no longer be a trivial act, but one that had meaning. We no longer wanted to momentarily desert our (idyllic) living spaces for the benefit of the surrounding towns (organic farmers' markets, conferences, etc.), complaining about the inertia of our countryside and the lack of local dynamism.

To achieve this, we had to take our place as citizens again, to anchor and root our dreams in the places where we live, in association with the local people and local culture. The idea was to create a space (one Friday a month in Saint Julien-de-Civry) where the link with the land and those who work it would take precedence (a farmers' market coupled with a buying group), where there would be social links, exchange and sharing, and where there would be room for intelligence, imagination and poetry in all its forms (social and cultural dimension).

In short, a whole programme... which came to fruition in January 2013 in Saint Julien-de-Civry, with the creation of the non-profit association "Le Martsi du Vendredi" (Martsi synonymous with market in Charolais dialect).

The aims of the association
- To create a buying group to :
- support regional and organic production by guaranteeing a volume of sales to producers,
- Reduce the number of intermediaries between producer and consumer (in particular by reclaiming the role of the citizen as a "player" in his or her own consumption).
- Make the approach accessible to everyone by establishing the project locally with a monthly market from 5pm to 8pm every 1st Friday of the month (from February to December).
- Bringing a social and cultural dimension to the project, with market days providing opportunities for everyone to meet and share, with concerts, shows, screenings, debates and tastings, as well as workshops on local know-how and environmentally-friendly farming and ecological practices. The aim is to re-establish the frayed ties between local residents around committed and enriching subjects.