Brocante de 1er du Mai - en le 2eme

How very French!

The May Day (May 1st) Brocante was held on Sunday the 2nd... and people complain about shop hours in Elora!

Yesterday brought a cloudy morning - solid clouds - but by the afternoon, more sunshine!

So PJ and I took a stroll into the mayhem and decided to investigate what was for sale at the brocante. A brocante is a bit of a combination of an antique sale, a flea market and a car boot sale, all rolled into one.

I managed to resist buying anything, but I was really tempted by several items (it's too early in the holiday to spend all my money). I can't resist buying things for our dining room (I guess that's an extrapolation from the food fetish). I came across a set of 8 semi-antique Christofle(!) sterling place card holders, that the woman had priced at 250E for the set, but volunteered to take 200 for. The there was a set of 11 (I guess one got broke over time) of antique crystal - not glass - (which I've never seen) knife rests, that had a solid, clear crystal bar in the middle, and each end had a frosted cherub face. They were 120E for the set. The thing that I regret not picking up, though, was a set of menus (various dates from 1951-1953) from a trans-atlantic ship's restaurant. I can't remember the name of the ship, but I thought it would be fun to re-crate some of the items for our Supper Club (There was wayyyyyy too much food every day to re-create the whole thing). I couldn't get the guy's attention to ask the price (just like at home, they don't seem to put a price tag on things - so how they know the price I don't know), but maybe I'll see them again in Nice or here at the end of the week again (there is a traveling antique market that runs the coast all week).

The crowds yesterday were insane (as expected) however today (Monday the 3rd), everyone is back at work. We found out that in France if a public holiday falls on a week end, you don't get a week-day off for it... so we have our little town back to ourselves.

Today's images all come from the brocante - and I snapped the gold sequined outfit as I think Carolyn would look ATD in it (you go girl!)!

I have to admit I'm being seduced here, too. Now before you get too excited, I mean, of course by the French Riviera (although I guess I've all ready give in to that seduction)... but there's this marvelous woman who has a stand at the market. All day long, like a trooper, she calls out in a sweet voice "Tapanade du maison, vert ou noir, tomates sechees!" Not loud - just lyrical and soft. She dolls out her home made tapenade from giant caviar bowls, and her sun-dried tomatoes from a big pile in the middle of the table. That's all she sells - and she's there day after day. I've got to get me some of that tapenade... however around here they all put anchovies in it, which isn't my favourite.

Today's video is brought to you from the casino in Menton.

Today (May 3rd) is my Brother's birthday, so I'll call him later on. I'm blogging a little late today (it's 1:15pm), so I want to dash and get up to the pool to do some sunning. They are calling for rain for Tuesday and Wednesday, so I want to get a good dose of vitamin D to last!

If I'm confusing anyone, I always blog about what happened yesterday so I hope everyone's on the straight and narrow.

Thanks to everyone about my photos. I find that I'm so wrapped up in doing this blog thing that I have only taken about 15 actual photos on my camera!

Anyway - off to the roof-top!