Brocantes - just another form of recycling?

During the tourist season the region of Centre Val de Loire offers many distractions in the form of fetes, festivals brocantes and vide-greniers.

Brocantes (bric-a-brac) / vide-greniers (empty your attic) sales nowadays have the usual collection of stalls spilling out on to village streets, or filling their parks and playing fields, to be viewed and haggled over by locals and tourists alike. I find it hard to resist the temptation of the chance of finding some treasure (rarely do) in what is, in the main, discarded unwanted or unloved items from other people's lives. You can find everything here and I have been keeping a record of some of the more unusual items which I will share with you over time.

On Sunday Pauline and I went to the brocante being held at the nearby racecourse at La Roche Posay. The weather had unfortunately taken a surprising turn for the worse so we held off and were rewarded by a spell of enough sunshine for us to visit here and a fete in Yzeures-sur-Creuse nearby. We arrived just in time to witness the stallholders removing the rain covers from their precious offerings, It must have been a quite miserable morning for them, in the rain, with few potential buyers. By the time we had made our way round and made our purchases it was beginning to pick up-thankfully. Pauline was searching for empty atomisers to fill with a concoction / recipe that our friend Karen had mixed to effectively keep the mosquitos at bay - must get the details - though know there's vodka in there somewhere. There was much attempted screwing of tops - there was a surprising number of these for sale - before she actually found two she could use.

I found a lovely single flower vase for 2 euros plus some toys and pictures that, as Pauline reminded me, I didn't really need. The most unusual item on display was a wonderful  mounted boars head - every home should have one - so I will add the pic. to what will be a gallery/slideshow of these items...