Another Brocante

I went to my first brocante in the spring of 2007, which is where I first saw a treadle sewing machine that caused me to dream of Jasmine. It wasn't until spring of 2009 that I really caught on to the awesomeness of brocanting...and now I am fully hooked. Another term for brocante is vide grenier, which means "empty attic." I love the idea of digging through someone's attick and getting to take away treasures! Consider brocanting to be one of my favorite things to do in France. For my birthday weekend, I went to one in Aix with Joy. I bought a few little antique irons to use as doorstops, just like my Great Gran used to do. I also bought a red pitcher to use as a flower vase...and it is now happily filled with sunflowers from the Friday Flower Market.

At that brocante, I saw an old travel trunk like they used to use before suitcases, with all the awesome travel stickers from the places it had been. The kind of trunk you see in movies but never real life. It was beautiful. And too expensive for me to buy. I walked away sadly. Then stumbled upon two old movie theatre folding chairs. The metal kind that have puffy red leather seats. Again, too expensive to buy, and sad walking away.

The next day, I had non-buyers remorse and decided that they were worth their money, and I need a chair anyway. I called Joy to see if we could go to the brocante in another town that had been advertised for the following week...hoping the vendors of the trunk and chair would be there. We went...those particular vendors did not. But here are some of the cool things we saw that second brocante.

Helmets from WWI and WWII, from different countries' armies. There was US stuff, French stuff, Polish Liberation stuff, and even a Nazi helmet. It was really cool. Really.

Now THAT's a travel trunk!!! I didn't even ask how much, because I didn't want to be sad.

Beautiful old, leather bound books.

As we were leaving, I sighed a happy sigh. Beautiful Provence colored houses, fall leaves, a gorgeous day, fun with friends, and sweet French people out enjoying the brocante. Maybe I'll find another one to go to this Sunday?