Description:

“ Sleigh bells and snow bells, and whiskers on kittens;   Bright copper kettles and warm woollen mittens; brown paper packages tied up with string …”    recognise these words from the ‘Sound of Music!  This song is reminiscent  of Vide Greniers and Brocantes - places where you seem to find these strange objects and just about anything else you may or may not need.  Perhaps an ancient cart or pram, an enamelled metal washing facility or even an embroidered wimple.  France, including the Poitou Charente is famous for its vide greniers, brocantes and puce events.

 

What are these I hear you ask?  Well for the uninitiated, a vide grenier (translated as empty attic) is what we call in England, a Car Boot Sale – you either love ‘em or you hate ‘em.  Brocantes are a little more professional – they generally offer more genuine antiques and can be more expensive.  Of course that is not to say that you won’t find a genuine antique on a Vide Grenier – if you search hard enough and long enough or that you won’t find a bargain at a brocante.  Puce  literally translated is a flea market.   Sometimes you will find  Vide Greniers, Brocantes and Puces all operating at the same time, along with a general market, cultural event and even childrens donkey rides.

 

In England we tend to put everything in the car and take it along to the site to sell – hence the term ‘car boot’.  In France you might find that a whole town or village is closed for the day and that stalls are set up outside peoples houses – they literally ‘empty their attic’.  In the pretty, historical village of Moncontour in north Vienne, bordering Deux Sevres, you will find that this is what happens each year on the 1^st May.  It is one of the biggest Vide Grenier / Brocantes in the Vienne region and offers not just a car boot or antique fair, but also food, drinks, children’s play area, and local produce market.  Of course Moncontour is also home to an XIth century donjon and a grand water sports lake where you can relax at the auberge or on the beach. 

 

For many people purely attending these events gives them a buzz.  Will they find that one time bargain, or the object that will make them a millionaire, or maybe even just something they can fall in love with…..    .   At these events you find stall after stall of items….  furniture, jewellery, firearms (including ancient pistols and swords), linen and embroidery, arts and crafts, antique paintings, ancient toys,  music albums and cds,  the list goes on and on….  the joy is in browsing and searching, in the hustle and bustle of the activity.

 

My husband who has little interest in these events will tell you that I am addicted.   My most memorable purchase from a brocante was a broach.  Not that I wear broaches, generally speaking, but this one stood out from the crowd.  The stall I was perusing had many expensive objects to the back, but to the front items had been thrown into boxes, mixed up, and looked ready for the scrap heap – 1 euro a piece.   With interest I searched through the boxes and came across a broach in the shape of a scorpion.  Now, whilst I do not have a keen interest in broaches, I also do not have a keen interest in insects of any variety – live or dead - but this one caught my eye.   The broach had no hall mark, had a silver metal body,  gold coloured legs, and was adorned with different coloured stones. My gut instinct told me that this was something special,  truly it was very beautiful. 

Well to cut a long story short, I purchased it for 1 euro, took it back to England where an expert at Bonhams Auction house explained that the body was of gold and silver with semi precious stones and valued it at over £90.

 

Many professional brocantes are held all year round on a monthly or weekly basis and usually on a Sunday – such as those in Poitiers or Chatellerault.  However March generally sees the kick off for vide greniers – spring through to the end of summer and it is well worth attending these purely for the atmosphere that is created, with the enormous crowds that can collect, the smell of the regional foods and sounds of music.

 

The following are just a few of the many, many events that will take place in the next couple of months in the Poitou Charentes region, particularly around Moncontour.

 

28 March   Couhé  and  Chauvigny Foire aux Puces and Brocante

4^th April   -  Marnes  and Angles sur l’Anglin

18^th April    Les Trois Moutiers

25^th April   Thenezay

1^st May  -   Moncontour.

 

Story written by Anji Weston who runs a B&B Le Grand Saule in Moncontour, Vienne

 

 

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