We had a mark on the calendar which said “Sunday July 31st Brocante at La Celle Guenand”.
Tim Ford had told us that it was a ‘biggie’ and not to be missed, so by 9.45 we were ready and drove the couple of km up the road. As we approached the village we saw cars parked on the verge and decided to join them. We were glad we did because when we strolled down the hill towards the Brocante there was mayhem, with cars trying to park in the large fields allocated for car parking. Any thoughts we may have had about being earlybirds were dispelled as we saw quite a few people leaving with their purchases!
The brocante proved to be a ‘biggie’, but although crowded, was fairly well organised. We set about doing what we usually do and browsed the stalls and items on display. There was a stall selling peacock feathers and I was tempted by the beautiful colours, but formed the opinion that they were even more beautiful attached to the bird, so passed. Later my friend Maureen told me that they are considered to be unlucky – something to do with the eye.
You may remember that at a previous Brocante I was searching for some knife and fork rests. I only saw a couple of sets, neither of which I liked very much.
There were hundreds of stalls, some of which were around a small lake. We were shocked (although so many of my fellow bloggers had been warning about the drought conditions) to see how the water level in the lake had dropped.
We were about half way round when our friends John and Maureen from Le Breuil rang to say that they had arrived. Amazingly they had found a parking space on the road right next to us ……
It was fun to go round with Maureen. We soon decided that men and women take a very different approach to any kind of shopping. Women think of the reasons WHY they need to buy something, whereas men concentrate on the reasons WHY NOT!!
One such item was a picnic set that Maureen liked …..
Our purchases were few:
a rather French looking brand new 1000 piece jigsaw, still in its wrappings, at 3€ for me …
and a U2 vinyl album ‘The Joshua Tree’ to add to Tom’s collection, a bargain holiday present at 2€ …
Maureen bought a dainty glass condiment for the table (this isn't the one!).
After a couple of hours we were hot, tired and very dusty. There was a long queue for food so we decided to come back to Le Pre Vert and had a rather makeshift lunch of bread, cheese and melon.
I did have a rather unsettling experience though. I took a photograph of a TinTin poster pinned to the side of a van. The stall holder took great exception and insisted very forcefully I should remove it. I got a bit flustered and couldn’t work out how to do it quickly enough for him so he marched round, grabbed the camera and tried (and failed) to do it himself. He was making a bit of a scene. I didn’t have a problem with deleting it, just couldn't …..
Tim and John arrived to look at it, but the stall holder had really confused the menu system, the sun was on the screen and still we couldn’t delete! John dragged us off with the man still making a fuss and calling after us. I was a bit shocked, because if our photographs involve a person we always ask for permission. Maybe he had got out of bed on the wrong side or had something to hide, or perhaps he genuinely thought I was intruding on his privacy. Can you see anything about this photograph which could cause such objections?
On Martine's advice I've removed the photograph!
(see comments below)
Tim was tempted by ...
but luckily came up with the 55 reasons why not to spend 55€!!
The rest of the day was spent watching Jenson Button win the Hungarian Grand Prix, and having a lovely relaxing supper with Niall and Antoinette.
