Our village fete and brocante market

There was a five day fete in our village recently. I had heard from the sellers of our house that there was a big event every year, but of course with Covid happening after we moved here, this is the first time it has been held. There was a small one day event in 2020 but it wasn't much. Most of the things going on were not of interest to us, like football matches and dinner and dance events for local associations. However, the 'Vide Grenier' caught my eye and it was also on the same day as a vintage car rally, so that is when we went.

I was most pleased to see that it wasn't actually a Vide Grenier, which is basically a car boot sale for individuals, and usually here in France it's generally people selling a load of their old kids' clothes and toys and not always that interesting, but this was actually a brocante/flea market kind of market with pros selling their junk (rather than 'posh' antiques), which is what I like! 

There was also a part of the market with local producers selling their produce, such as honey or garlic like in the following photo. They look pretty to hang up but they were too expensive!

The market was huge and spread out over the whole village, going right up the hill to the very top of the old town.

Here we found some of the vintage cars. This is something American.

And this is a Mustang.

Two lovely old cars - I liked the white one.

As we were wandering around the sound of some music came down a side street and a rather eclectic bunch wandered past us. I loved the nun pushing the amplifier for the pirate who was playing guitar and singing rather badly. 😁

At the top of the village beside the 'Halles', the centuries old covered market, there were many food stalls and tables and chairs had been laid out under cover for people to take their food to to eat at. Actually we were really lucky as it was at last a much cooler day with cloud so it was far more pleasant to be walking around!

I'm assuming this is an old school, as that's what it says!

I also liked this old building, but it's getting a bit too tatty and looks like people have blobbed mortar over the stones, badly, at the bottom. Love the half timbered part and I hope it is renovated at some point.

Coming back down the hill and despite the heat this summer, the planters are still looking very colourful and well looked after.

I loved this colourful balcony!

We are now down to the lower part of the village and the building behind the antique fabric stall is the old weighbridge.

It's the first time it has been open so we went in to see what was in there....

A replica of what the village looked like back in medieval times, with the fortified walls and part of a castle. The perspex or glass was very reflective so difficult to photograph, so that is actually my shadow blocking the light as best I could! The old railway station that I mentioned in a recent post was along the road from here, so I guess the produce was weighed before sending off to other towns/markets, hence having a weighbridge.

Down to the 'main street' where the few shops are - a pharmacy and restaurant in view and opposite there is a bakery and a little mini market selling most everything you need, which is really handy to have in a small village with a population of just under 1,000. There's also a cafe which is behind where I'm taking the photo, and there was once a butcher's shop but it's closed. The building across the road on the far left used to be a coaching inn and the big barn like doors are still there where the horses would have been taken in, whilst the passengers would go around the other side which was a floor higher, to the inn and rooms. That's the way up to our road around there.

Here's what I came home with - just a few things but I'm very pleased with them. A couple of rustic jugs - the one on the left and the one just right of the photo. I used to have quite a few jugs but many bigger ones got broken over the years, so when mum died I took a few little ones from her house. These two cost me just 2.50 euros.

Many of my ornaments and bits and bobs come from either my grandmother or my mum (which probably came from her mum anyway), such as the copper and the gold mirror frame, which I remember from my childhood having a horrible picture in it. Mum had this and another one turned into mirrors, which look fabulous. I'm not into contemporary or minimalist style as you can see. 😀

There was also a stall selling old stuff for the garden, and I saw these rusty butterflies which were just the sort of thing I was looking for. I will paint the red part in blue later on to go with my collection of blue pots. They were pretty cheap too. (These orange Bidens overwintered here by the pool and have come back to life - I had no idea if they were going to be annuals or perennials, so that was a nice surprise!).

I have more photos of my planters, tomatoes and garden for another post later on.