The Braderie, or The Biggest Flea Market I've Ever Seen

That's right, not freedom fries, not
French fries...American fries!

Last Sunday, our town held its annual Braderie. According to the bi-weekly civic information flyer we get, the Braderie consists of 3000 vendors from all over the region and occupies almost four miles of city streets. Bus service was even halted through Cesson-Sevigne because of it! Naturally, Lisa and I couldn't pass this up, especially as the sale began about 500 ft from our front door. So after lunch, we grabbed our cash and headed out to see what was for sale.

This doesn't look like any licorice
we've seen in America.

The first thing that struck me was the sheer number of people buying and selling things. The streets were packed with people and every time we rounded a corner, we discovered another street full of booths. There were even food vendors out on the street selling everything from grilled sandwiches to fries (which the French refer to as "American fries"!) to cotton candy to churros (which are called "chichis" in French and aren't like the churros I've had in Mexico; these are more like funnel cake). There were also several bulk candy booths which we couldn't pass up!

Our purchases.  I call
that Lisa's explorer bag.

Look familiar?  They don't to people
here.

In general, the Braderie was sort of a mix of a flea market and a big city-wide garage sale. There were people selling antiques, postage stamps, old postcards, and other collectibles, but there were also a lot of people selling old clothes, lamps, videos, DVDs, and other things that looked like they had been sitting in someone's basement for quite a while. Still, we were able to find a few good treasures at a good price. Among our haul: an old end table that we turned into a TV stand; a couple cheap books (including a French translation of my favorite book, The Secret History by Donna Tartt); a shoulder-bag for Lisa to carry; and some old Greek drachmas (the coins Greece used before they joined the euro-zone). I bought the drachmas because they had pictures of ancient Greeks on them: Perikles, Demokritos, and Alexander the Great. The guy who was selling them was very interested and impressed to learn we were Americans. We also thought it was funny that in his big box of coins, he had a couple perfectly good American quarters and pennies. Of course, I'm sure a French person going to a flea market in the US would find it amusing to see perfect good euro coins for sale!

The church during the
braderie, and yes, that's
the bouncy house...again.

In the end, we spent about three hours walking the streets, browsing the various stalls, and we still didn't see everything. Last week was unusually warm and sunny for this part of France at this time of year - low to mid-80s. (In fact, the local paper called last week "a summer in the tropics"!) After several hours out in the hot sun, we decided we couldn't handle much more so we headed home. Still, it was another eventful weekend in our town. This weekend promises to be eventful here, too. Tomorrow morning, we're headed to an official reception at the civic cultural center that's put on every year by the mayor's office to welcome new residents of Cesson-Sevigne. Hopefully we'll have some good stories about the mayor's presentation, the free drinks we're given afterwards, and meeting more people like us who have recently moved here!