Sunday Vide-Grenier 12-07-25

I have a web site that tracks all of the various street markets throughout France by Department, locale, and date. It lists the brocantes, collector’s fairs, and vide-greniers (garage sales) and flea markets for a given date. Also it lists the town, the hours, and number of vendors. It even shows where the sale will take place on a map. You can check for sales at least a week ahead and so plan to attend.  Today there was a Vide-Grenier in Villefranche-sur-Mer and we were committed to go. So we got out shortly after 10:00. and made our way over to the beginning stop on the bus route over. It was sunny and warm so the bus filled pretty quickly and made us glad we got on at the beginning. Plus, and this was a shock to me, there was a Sardinian ferry docked in the harbor. It was a cruise ship sized boat which I didn’t think could be accommodated in the harbor. We also saw a number of what I think were world-tour bicycle racers out training on the road. They wear the team cycling gear and they ride at the speed limits for cars. What is interesting is that in a group of 4 to 6 we would see perhaps 3 team colors represented. Once they passed the bus there was no way we could keep up with them.  This stretch of the Riviera is a favorite training area for professional bike racers during the winters.

We arrived at Villefranche and got off the bus right next to the park where the sale was taking place. This particular vide-grenier has been lucky for us in the past, in that we had found a lovely old hand-made copper lunchbox. It now resides in our kitchen and many of you have eaten bread out of it. I go back to my fishing/hunting analogy since we once found a good thing there, it may yield up some other goodies today.  Amazingly enough it seems that Villefranche must be our little copper mine. I managed to come across a set of 6 small tin lined copper cups that match a group that

we have back in Denver. They were very inexpensive according to Deb. She says that she sees them online for several multiples of what we paid today. So score, we fleeced the natives once again.  We did see things that again would be interesting to a resident here but not to a space restricted tourist. We also make it a habit to go through a sale at least twice, once in each direction. It’s pretty interesting how a person can see things that were previously missed by coming back through in the opposite direction. Today was not an opposite direction day, but it was still productive for us.

When we finished with the sale it was the early part of the lunch period so we walked down into the harbor side of the town. We wanted to try a different restaurant than the place we usually eat. It was a good choice because our usual restaurant was filled to the limit and it would have been a long wait. There is a small square that is slightly up the hill from the harbor side restaurants and it has 3 places where food is served. We picked the one that advertised pizza thinking it would be a lighter lunch. They offered deep fried squid as an appetizer and we ordered it to share. Then we each ordered a pizza, Margarita for Deb and Diavolo for me. When the squid came we knew we were doomed, it came in a mixing bowl sized container. Worse yet, it was by far the best squid we’ve had on the entire trip which is saying something. So we took our belts in hand, loosened them and devoured our squid, letting it go to waist not waste. 

The pizzas came out and they were not gigantic, but still bigger than I would have chosen had I any idea. They were also scrumptious, out goes the belt another notch.  On the plus side we had to waddle up the hill to get to the bus stop back to town.  I figure that burnt about 10 bites of the squid.  After a 10 minute wait our bus came and we rode it back to into town. We choose to take the bus because the ride is so beautiful, even if the train might be faster. For the ride back we get off the bus at the harbor because it is also the beginning stop for the trams that will bring us to within 3 blocks of the apartment.  But today we wanted to see if the permanent brocante shops were open, so we walked to the west side of the harbor only to find them closed.  We walked back to the tram stop passing all the large private motor yachts and caught the tram back to our neighborhood.   

We’re now down to two full days before we leave for Amsterdam on the 10th and we have to decide what activities we might like to undertake before leaving.  We have ideas!