top of page
Search

Markets big and small

Writer's picture: AhmedAhmed

Updated: May 6, 2024

The weekend had some really diverse markets. First was one of our favorite annual events, the Créances Carrot fair. I've written before of the dependence of the local economy on healthy agriculture and carrots thrive in the the sandy soil here. Créances is a local hub for agriculture and the carrots are celebrated, naturally, on the rond-point just outside town.







Where else could the town tell everyone of its carrot pride? Every year this celebration is carried over into a foire and an inevitable massive brocante which takes over almost the whole village. This is a social gathering as much as a trading event as people come in from the outlying hamlets and villages both to sell attic-finds as well as catch up on local gossip. The townspeople also join in, opening up front gardens.



Sunday began with a huge market at Donville-les-bains and ended with a small local one at Montpinchon. Donville-les-bains took over the town's main thoroughfare with over 1km of stalls. It was a big bustling affair with hordes of tourists. For us, poking our way through clumps of tourists, it was a battle with some tough negotiation!



Montpinchon on then other hand was tiny. A small fair, and some saucisse-frites stalls cluster around an elegant church high in the Normandy hills.




But again the market was part of a larger event this time the Saint Laurent, a four day cycling tour around Manche. We had to hurry as our late arrival coincided with the start of a race. We had to run back to the car with our bag of purchases to avoid the peloton. Our weekend managed to encompass the full range of sizes and types of market and I'm glad we finally got to see a few seconds of cycling, the big French summer sport. Even so, it was a relatively quiet weekend for us. It's mid August and many of the tourists have begun to go home so the smaller markets have become less frequent. There are still some large Brocantes to come before autumn arrives but I like the small towns with medieval town centres, idiosyncratic vendeurs, and clouds of saucisse smoke. Nevertheless we've had a good summer for purchases so far and there is the inevitable backlog in listing items for both the website and our Etsy shop La Boite. So we go back to the production line and dive back into our week of cleaning, polishing, photography and listing! #Weekendreport #VideGrenier #Antiques

1 view0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comentários


bottom of page