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Things to Do this Week in the 7 Valleys
Take a tour round an Alpaca Farm
at Wambercourt. Get to know these charming gentle animals and learn about the uses
for their fine and luxuriously soft wool. Buy products made from alpaca wool. Admission€
1.50, telephone 03 21 05 53 70 for details or go to www.elevagealpaga.fr
Every Thursday evening there are free open-air concerts at Hesdin in the Marche aux
Poissons, from 20h30. (In the Town Hall if the weather is bad)
Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays,
all summer long weather permitting, enjoy lunch outdoors under the apple trees in
the garden of Les Trois Fontaines at Marconne. Main course, dessert, drink and coffee
- €15.00 Reservations 03 21 86 81 65
Look Out! It’s The Invasion of the Junk-Snatchers! by Sue Sharp
Tat or treasure? It all depends says a brocante junkie, overdosing on the French
national Sunday sport.
The atmosphere in our household is getting chilly, despite the warm weather. Brocante
season is in full flow and my husband is fed-up with the ‘junk’ making its way through
our door each Sunday. “Why,” he asks, “have you bought that? More to the point, what
it is? And where are you going to put it?”
I say he’s a grouch with no imagination. He’s convinced I’m a brocante junkie who
just can’t say no to a bargain.
He sees a dusty box of chipped, pressed glass punch cups. I envisage a row of candle
holders dotted round the terrace, light flickering through the grapes on the cups.
He groans as I lug a chair, all sticky varnish and yellow plastic upholstery, out
of the car. I see a sound fauteuil with a lovely shape, a ‘shabby chic’ addition
to the bedroom paint-washed, distressed and recovered in toile de jouy. He looks
in disbelief at a rusty table I want carried home. I’m sure that once stripped, painted
and varnished, it will be a wonderful potting table in the garden.
In my defence, it’s a fairly harmless and inexpensive hobby. And I do manage to renovate and find homes for the majority of my finds. However, some of the bargains are…junk…and have to be returned to the brocante system for someone else to appreciate.
The real stumbling block is that I’m running out of room. This, rather than husbandly resistance, will bring my buying to a halt. If I can stop buying, that is. Does anyone know of a twelve step programme in northern France? “My name’s Sue and I’m a brocante junkie…”
Sue’s top ten brocante tips
2. Check dates/locations before making a long journey, in case the brocante has been cancelled.
3. If you’re serious, get there early.
4. Don’t just look at the goods on the table - open boxes and rummage. I’m still kicking myself over the cardboard box of Villeroy & Boch china I walked past and my friend picked up for 20 euros.
5. Look beyond the obvious – what will it be like cleaned, resprayed, reframed, rewired? But don’t buy it unless you have the skills to do it. Paying someone else means it’s no longer a bargain.
6. Haggle. Everyone does and the stallholder expects it.
7. Get real – do you really have room for a four piece massive oak (possibly woodworm-riddled) bedroom suite in your fermette?
8. Take bags and packing to protect potentially precious articles. Some stallholders will have packing materials but some won’t.
10. Unlike the author, know when to stop!
