Jumble sales, la brocante, flea markets, les puces, vide greniers, empty your attics, garage sales, boot sales, lawn sales, and so forth, attract all manner of people, all hoping to find that incredible bargain which had been eluding them persistently until today. . . and the vendors, the hawkers, the highway robbers, merchants of mediocrity, the occasional purveyor of pure gold, all lay out their wares, their bait, their lures, hoping to catch the big fish, praying it won't get away before its wallet's been emptied. So in that lurid light, the dream world of the rummage sale, a variety of weird scenes are wont to appear, fleeting glimpses of joyous market forces at work. . .
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Like this ready made collage of images, no cutting or pasting required . . .
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The nutcrackers from the Nutcracker Suite were on hand, drinking Heineken. . .
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There was even a battery powered dog, in case anyone needed growling at . . .
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Phials and philtres and quack medicine galore . . .
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And a Victory sans wings, a Venus de Milo sans tête, waiting for someone to take her home. . .
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13 comments:
J'allais partir après mon comment sur l'article d'avant mais je dois te dire que toutes ces photos sont des dizaines d'histoires fantastiques et fabuleuses...
Merci de nous les livrer à la maison confortablement assis !
A plus Owen !
'reviendrais car il y a tant et tant à voir , "à regarder", ....
j'y va !...
yep! That's it, I'm moving to France! We just don't have flea markets like this in Scotland - they don't seem to get it, somehow... and I'm a lesser person for it! Trouble with me is I'd be buying all that stuff, then there would be no room for me in the house! It's already bursting at the seams with old canvas frame tents, rusty 50's tricycles and scooters and other such nonsense - which isn't nonsense, of course, it's treasure!!
It all looks so lovely! Maybe it's because it's French and not English hehe! Even those old tins look beautiful and have that air of mystery. Maybe if I spoke french it wouldn't have the same magic?;)
Hi Jessie, even after nearly two decades living here in France as a person of foreign origin, it all remains mysterious and magical to me... but I have the same feeling when I go to England too... of otherness and strangeness and wonder. And now, even when I return home to that land of eternal promise across the sea, it seems foreign to me... and therefore wonderful. Guess I've become a man without a country. At home everywhere and nowhere???
Dearest Liz, you really know how to get a guy like me salivating ! A house full of old rusty tricycles and tents and scooters??? I'm on my way !!! LOL I'm sure you have already looked at all the hundreds of previous photos I've posted, but just in case, please don't miss the tricycle pieces... you can find a reference to tricycles in the "labels" chaotic index at right here... Tiddles must be having a fine old time scooting around your house and tricycling about the garden... hope to see some drawings as proof of that soon !!!
J34, reviens, reviens, on est là, le café est chaud, on t'attend...
So much to look at! Wow.
Je vois que tu as retrouvé mes bouteilles de confection pour notre tisane !... Tu m'étonnes qu'elle arrache !... Moi, je t'avais conseillé un soupçon de soude caustique... mais bon !...
Il y atant et tant d'histoires dans es photos...! Tu devrais faire les brocantes plus souvent Owen !... Aaahh ! Mais c'est vrai ! Toi tu payes pour entrer et pour ressortir aussi !... C'est pour cela que tu nous racontes de belles histoires !....
Owen you've described very well the sense of foreignness you get from living overseas for an extended period of time. I had the same feeling when I lived in Australia... and when I came back here.
You have no other option than to become a citizen of the world, do you?
I love this series of photos - and in the last one the conveniently located books hiding the Venus's intimity. Americans are so prude LOL !!!
Each photo is an invitation to tell a story. Fabulous!
Love the metal bucket tied to the weird wooden boy... very surreal!
Nice shots. Have you been to a jumble market :)
Wow, it looks like a paradise for jumble sales lovers like me - I love those tins and bottles and pieces of china. In your previous post there was something which reminded me my childhood - toy building bricks (I had very similar,really). Of course there are old dolls here even in my attic:)
I think all the Heineken in the wrold wouldn't be enough to prevent "ouch" from having ones nuts cracked by those things...unless one's attention was being diverted by the dog with a vibrating bone!
Owen, between the two of us, you can tell me you did take the Venus de Milo back to your home, it will remain a secret, don't worry!
This "bric-a-brac" in pictures is a "merveille".
I won't say "well done" because we know it is part of you and you can see that beauty through your magic lantern :-)
See you soon,
Loulou
PS - YES I am back!
Owen, these are beautiful pictures. I love how you did this :) Isn't it wonderful when we take everyday things and find beauty in them :)
Have a Happy Day!
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