Treasure Hunt

A mobylette….check out the state of the seat…and the front non-tire.

Vide-grenier season is in full swing. A vide-grenier, or “empty the attic,” is a kind of flea market or mass garage sale. It isn’t like the famous flea markets of Paris, with established vendors and quaint shops. It’s for non-professionals, mostly.

You pack up your no-longer-loved possessions into your car and then try to unload them on somebody willing to pay a couple of euros. The biggest segment by far is kids’ clothes and toys.

Followed by adult clothes. Then kitchen stuff, decorating stuff, tools and books/records/CDs etc.

French stars: Johnny Hallyday, Serge Gainsbourg (with Jane Birkin), wild asparagus.

Sometimes you find treasures. We got a couple of crystal sconces. Some interesting pictures. A cheese cloche. That’s over about a dozen vide-greniers in a couple of months.

A bargain for a little dish to cook pâté in the oven!

Not sure where these came from. Above a door?

Doors to the old-fashioned kind of wine cuve.

Real. Enough said.

A vide-grenier is an interesting picture into the French culture. You see what people collect.

Notice the bookends to the left of the mortars and pestles? You wonder how that collection got going.

“Fèves” from the galette des rois of Jan. 6…..the person who gets the fève is king/queen for the day.

Old coins and champagne caps (right)

There’s always someone with military stuff.

You’re reminded of a time when France wasn’t as rich, when it was picking up after war and one had to make do.

The long thing is a spice mill made from a used shell, then intricately decorated. Just to the right, a lighter, also made from a shell.

There are métiers no longer as common as they once were.

Tools for horseshoeing

Scale with weights

And, it being France, there is always food.

I cannot emphasize how fantastic that giant wok of meat smelled. We were there at 10 a.m., so it was too early to eat. Sniff!

This vendor of le Creuset pots had a little picnic lunch, with proper dishes, silverware and a bottle of wine!

Doesn’t get fresher than this.

Sorry for the blurry photos. The sun was so bright I couldn’t see a thing on the camera screen.

What’s the best treasure you’ve found at a vide-grenier or garage sale?