Brocante Day in Paradise found us up at 7 or so, coffee, minor cleanup of the small kitchen and then Bvroooom! Off to Chezel-Benoit for #1. Now Chezal has a population that includes various persons afflicted by mental conditions. I've been to three brocantes there and every time the hopital (mental) therein releases a few patients to roam the stalls and gawk with the rest of us. Some just stare in abject silence, some run between tables making utterances that bear little resemblance to speech, others mix well with the crowd and could be taken for you or ME on a slightly bad day...we don't always respond as a more normally sensed human might...a touch alone creates a loud giggle or shout or excessive hand movements (like Italians after Sunday mass). We ambled thru the stalls looking for something magical and needed, nothing, just cold wind and storm clouds above made it a rather miserable experience...along with the few well mannered nut cases
roaming with us. We saw it all and left unsatisfied for the next experience at Nozier near St. Amand Montrond. Only a short distance away it was down the hill from the town proper in what appeared to be a huge campground next to a beautifully dense tract of hardwood forest. Many stalls, lots of junk lying about and the smell of burning merguez sausage wafting by. I queried a vendor pointing to a lovely Henry 2 mirror they had leaning against his car bumper, "Combien S'il vous plait" (how much please), "Une cent euro", came back...wants 100 Euros for it, not bad, man knows his stuff, good...but too expensive for our cheap blood. 25, a buy, 35, sure, 50, maybe, above that...eh, they'll be another someplace, sometime. Well back to the car after another futile brocante session and to home where work (always!) awaits.
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