In 1931, Sebastià Riera left his home and family in Petra in Mallorca and travelled to France in search of work.
"At that time there was a lot of work in the textile factories in the Troyes region," explains his grandson, Francis. "Of the ten brothers, seven migrated to either France, England or Argentina and the rest stayed in Mallorca.”
Sebastià married and had a son called Joan, who married a Parisian and later they had Francis and his brother Pascal.
The Riera family spent their holidays in Mallorca, visiting relatives in Petra, Soller, Alcudia and Pollensa and they always took sobrasadas and other Mallorcan sausages back to France when they went home.
“Spain wasn’t in the common European market then and we were not allowed to take meat products into France, so we hid them inside boxes of ensaimadas,” recalls Francis Riera.
After a decade of moving around, working all over France and in Barcelona, Francis decided that he wanted a more stable job.
"I wanted to open a store or a food stall," says Francis.
When the owner of a charcuterie stall in the Marché Couvert Saint-Quentin in the 10th arrondissement of Paris retired, Francis took over his stall.
Marché Couvert Saint-Quentin is one of the emblematic markets of Paris between Gare du Nord and Gare del’Est.
Francis sells fresh pork loin, ribs and sausages from Normandy, duck sausages and many other dishes on his stall and of course, there is no shortage of Mallorcan black pork sobrasada, normal and cooked.
Francis says a lot of his customers recognise it, because they had it during holidays in Mallorca.