By James Bow

Like most people, my family has built up a number of traditions surrounding the end of summer. As Toronto transplants, one of those traditions centred around the Canadian National Exhibition. That venerable industrial fair was our big end-of-season blast, a chance to eat bad food, enjoy midway rides, and generally have fun before we had to knuckle down on work and school.

This summer, we decided we didn’t want to brave the trek to Toronto, and instead headed south to Paris to check out their fair. The Paris Fair is even older than the CNE, and famous for its program of agricultural exhibits, horse shows and midway. Well, we went and, for my money, I’d have to say that the Paris Fair is a more enjoyable and worthwhile experience than the Ex.

The Paris Fair has everything that the CNE has, with midway attractions that were just as fun for adults and kids alike. I braved the funhouse (which I had to since my youngest daughter wanted to go in, but didn’t want to go in on her own. You can imagine the hilarity of my adult self, squeezing through the obstacles) rode the ferris wheel, and lost the whack-a-mole.

I especially liked that there were kid-friendly variants of the more adult games of the midway, even though I had to chuckle over how they had basically eliminated the chance factor in them. In one game, parents would pay $5 so that their children could fish out three magnetic fish using magnets at the end of fishing rods. That’s it. There was nothing special about the fish; no special prize markers hidden underneath. Catch three, get a prize. The fish were just the middleman, and the parents were really just paying directly for an inexpensive stuffed toy, and also for their kids’ experience of winning at a game that was rigged in their favour.

But where the Paris Fair had an advantage over the CNE was in its agricultural exhibits. The Paris Fair retains its connection to your historic country fair that the CNE gradually removed. The CNE has a horse show, but I can no longer find the agricultural prize exhibits for things like the biggest pumpkin, best butter sculpture, or even school writing contests.

True, it’s here where my kids were in most danger of being bored, but as a parent I appreciated the change of pace from the hectic midway. And the kids’ interest perked up when we saw live exhibits of dairy calves, honeybees, chickens and rabbits.

For the past two years, my wife and I have taken the kids out to the farm every week to pick up a share of vegetables we bought. We’re doing this because we believe it’s important that our children know where their food comes from, so they don’t assume that milk only comes from the grocery store.

The Paris Fair, and country fairs like it, reinforce this education, and I think it’s important that the fairs in our more urban centres not forget this. It’s this sort of education that will protect local farmers and farmland from urban sprawl, reminding our children that our farmers feed our cities, and that local produce is not only more sustainable than produce imported across continents, it’s tastier too.

Toronto has worked towards that understanding in recent years with events like the Evergreen Brickworks farmers’ market. Unfortunately, the CNE has become little more than a funfair and flea market. It doesn’t have the Paris Fair’s soul.

So I think this family has started a new tradition. Next year, instead of trekking east to attend the CNE, we’ll head south, to Paris and the joys of a real country fair.

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James Bow is a writer and father of two in Kitchener.
You can read more about him at http://bowjamesbow.ca/