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Chapter 1

• THE BELLY OF PARIS begins with Madame Francois driving a wagon filled with vegetables from Nanterre, a suburb of Paris, to Les Halles, the major market district in Paris.

• Madame Francois holds up a caravan of other vendors as she stops to pick up a pitiful man named Florent who is lying unconscious at the side of the road.

• Florent falls asleep and does not awaken until the wagon has arrived in Les Halles and he is overwhelmed by the abundance of foods available.

• Florent had escaped from the prison colony of Devil's Island in French Guiana two years ago and wandered through the jungle until he could make it back to France, arriving at the port of Le Havre, and ultimately collapsing five miles from Paris when Madame Francois finds him.

• While Florent sits with Madame Francois at her stall, he meets some other vendors named...

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