Frutaria do Bolhão

Stalls: 64-65-79-80

Rui and Paula are the faces of Frutaria do Bolhão.

Rui Silva's family has been selling fruit for many generations. His grandmother, Josefina Vieira, was from Penafiel, where she started buying orchards from farmers and then selling the fruit at Bolhão. Later, Rui's mother came to help his grandmother in the business and, year after year, so did all her brothers — Rui's uncles — who also came to work at other family fruit stalls. Rui, despite coming to Bolhão since an early age, only at the age of 28 did he take over the business from his mother, which he leads until the present.

Paula came to work at Bolhão when she was only 13 years old. Initially, her role was to take care of Ms. Ermelinda's daughter, who sold (and still sells) frozen fish. However, as Paula proved to be very good at working at the counter and communicating with customers, the owner of the stall decided to hire her. Paula stayed at the fishmonger for 20 years, until, by "the work of fate", she went to work at another stall, this time selling fruit, right in front of Rui's stall. As the market is known for being a "matchmaker", there's no need to say much more about these two "lovebirds": they fell in love, started dating, and presently they spread affection and smiles, united in a single stall.