Books join the harvest at the Marché Vieux-Hull

Tashi Farmilo

At the Marché Vieux-Hull in Gatineau, where visitors come for honey, local crafts, and the season’s best fruit and vegetables, two local authors found space to share their stories with the community.

Didier Périès was there with Guelta: Du Sahel au rugby, a novel that follows Nana, a young woman who leaves Mauritania for a new life across the Mediterranean. Rugby becomes her path to belonging in an unfamiliar society while she reconciles with her past. “It’s a novel that puts forward a female character, an immigrant, and rugby helps her integrate, develop, and flourish,” Périès said. Sharing books in a market, he added, is about meeting readers where stories and conversations happen naturally.

Périès, originally from Toulouse, has written multiple works, including Mystères à Natagamau: Sur la voie du sang, Mystères à Natagamau: Opération Clandestino, and Mystères à Natagamau: Le secret du borgne. His writing often explores themes of migration, identity, and the quiet tension of lives in transition, using genres from mystery to sports fiction to reflect the challenges and hopes of characters finding their place in new environments.

Danielle Soucy, who also helps organize the market, is an artisan, semi-retired community builder, and the principal manager at Aléo, an initiative supporting local purchases and events across the Outaouais. She is part of a collective that coordinates five markets in the region, including the Marché Vieux-Hull, where she works to connect local producers with the community. Soucy also creates handcrafted dolls, particularly small witches, which she sells as keepsakes for children and visitors seeking a reminder of the region’s stories.

At the market, Soucy shared her children’s book Chapeauville et la sorcière, a whimsical tale set in Gatineau Park that she wrote for her daughters and decided to publish last year. The book, illustrated by Vicky Blais, a young artist from Gatineau, encourages children to step away from screens and rediscover the joy of stories. “We need to encourage children to read, to learn to connect with real values, to meet people,” Soucy said, noting that the market’s atmosphere helps foster those connections.

The Marché Vieux-Hull runs every Thursday from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm until October 2 at Théâtre de l'Île, Place de la Francophonie, 1 rue Wellington in Gatineau. The market offers produce, local honey, live music, and small-scale artisans. Local authors will return on July 17, inviting visitors to discover books written within their own community while enjoying the day’s harvest and music.