Bric-a-Brac Heaven at the Braderie de Lille (1 Viewer)

magicsurfbus

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Oct 11, 2010
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Just back in from a very hectic weekend buying a bootful of bric-a-brac at Europes's largest weekend flea market, the Braderie de Lille. We took the car not the MH for this (our first) trip, but could easily see a MH option for the future, and may incorporate it into our next Autumn holiday.

Basically the whole of Lille city centre and a number of radiating boulevards are closed to traffic and opened to anyone who wants to spend two days selling off old stuff, from car boot style clutter right up to fine antiques and everything in between.

We commuted in from Bethune to the 4 Cantons Stadium P&R at Villeneuve d'Escq, caught their excellent fast automated Metro (only 5 Euros for a full weekend's travel pass) in and out, were there by 9am both mornings when the streets are easily navigable and ground to a halt among heaving crowds by mid-afternoon. Even then I reckon we'd only walked around two thirds of it.

Absolutely bloody excellent if you like that sort of thing - if you collect antiques or vintage stuff or want to Frenchify your maison you'll be like a pig in poo.

Lille does not appear to have any aires if CCI is to be believed, and the P&R mentioned above is multi-storey and cars only, but there is ample street parking around these car parks, and the trick is to definitely stay well away from the city centre. If I were going in the MH in future I'd be looking to stop at as local a campsite as I could get, and commuting early to park close to a suburban Metro station. If you're buying anything in quantity, take a decent-sized foldaway shopping trolley - you'll need it.

We were tipped off by a Dutch couple that there's also a big flea market in Ghent every Friday, so you could turn it into a hell of a bric a brac buying trip.

Furthermore, just down the autoroute at Arras on the Sunday of the same weekend there's an excellent son et lumiere spectacle at 10pm in the Grand Place which is free of charge and well worth a look.

Definitely a trip we hope to repeat.
 

Mousy

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Ohh would love to do that, I'm a bit of a hoarder, mr mousy is a minimalist, which just means he throws my "finds" out.

I could try cheating him into this trip....like getting him to watch Brokeback mountain by saying it was a western.

I'll have a think.
 

Hollyberry

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Only things I'm missing about France--the markets ( and proper fresh fruit, veg and goats cheese) and the vide greniers. Don't know what I'll do if I ever wear out my vintage linen sheets.
Sounds like you had a brilliant trip.

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ojibway

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I'm addicted to boot sales but, even though we have been going to France for decades we have only just found out how to locate them - rederie, brocantes, vide greniers, marche aux puces - they are quite prolific!
The interesting thing about a rederie/brocante in france is that it is not a private enterprise by a farmer or someone who owns a field, but a social event put on by a village, town or city as in Lille. They will often have hog roasts.
Heres on site listing sales throughout France: http://brocabrac.fr/Vide-greniers-80-Somme
The lists of rederies will often tell you how many sellers there will be as they have to register in advance. I was also told that sellers may only do two a year or they will be liable for income tax:(
Mike and Annie:cool::)
 

Lisa

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Ohh would love to do that, I'm a bit of a hoarder, mr mousy is a minimalist, which just means he throws my "finds" out.

I could try cheating him into this trip....like getting him to watch Brokeback mountain by saying it was a western.

I'll have a think.

I like your style! :rofl:

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