It's funny which ideas travel and which don't. Tonight I relayed to a Frenchman and two Americans how my son was attending an 'International' event at his school dressed as a "French Onion Seller". Judging from their bemused reactions, it appears the Brit perception of the archetypal Frenchman wearing a stripy T-shirt and beret and pushing a bicycle strung with onions hadn't reached their foreign ears.
Googling for French onion seller isn't that rewarding, but funnily enough many of the top links relate to the North East such as an episode of When the Boat Comes In, and this amazing archive footage of Newcastle in the 1960s: We Know Our Onions - French Onion Sellers in Tyneside ©NRFTA). Just love that Bretonne/Geordie accent, "why aye, mon cherie", "au revoir, pet".
There's a nice photo documentary of the last bicycle french onion seller here:
http://www.documentography.com/issue/5/ph/magali_delporte/1.html
It seems that "Onion Johnnie" is what they're known as.
There's even a Wikipedia article on them:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Johnny
Don't know if you are still interested in the subject but I have just been reading an article about French Onion Sellers in Newcastle, etc. where you mention archive footage of Newcastle in the 60s.
My husband Olivier sold onions in the area until 2006, and was filmed during the 60s. We have never been able to get any information about these films, and he would be delighted to see anything about Newcastle and his onion trade. We live in Roscoff and I think he has more nostalgia of his times spent there than I, raised in Benwell and the North East, have.
I'm trying to find the owner of the 'Onion Johnny' picture to get authorization to use it. Can anyone help? Thank-you
I remember the "French Onion Man" from my childhood in Cardiff. Can anyone give me any further information about this - onion men in the fifties in Cardiff. I am trying to put together some of my childhood memories so would like some background info, and if anyone has naything specific relating to Cardiff, please share it with me! Many thanks. Madeleine.
There's been an onion seller in Abergavenny for quite a number of years. Every Saturday during the autumn he's there with his bicycle at the entrance to the market. He makes the onions into the strings there and then and he's a really nice guy. Problem is, he hasn't been there all this year hence my visit here, looking for where he may have gone or where there is another.