The fete of the giant croissant

On Sunday we set off quite early to explore what's known here as 'brocantes', kind of like a boot sale in the UK or a garage sale in Oz. There were lots on but they were all a long way away. Mostly north of and over the Loire from where we are. The first one we went to at Le Guédeniau had a theme, it was the "La féte de la gros croissant"

Stalls ran in every direction along the winding village streets. Every person in the village was getting in on the act with all their crappiest DVD's and grubby soft toys but nevertheless there was quite a carnival atmosphere.

Occasionally there would be something slightly more interesting but at a hugely inflated price. The best thing we saw was an old sword with rags of cord hanging off it. We didn't buy anything except a couple of huge croissants. (Lucky we did as it was the only thing we ate all day). I got Ricardo to stand in front of these two typically French ladies so it looked like I was taking his photo. They looked amazed at all the people who'd suddenly turned up in their village. Here's a close up...
Sorry to tell you about photos I didn't take but there was one I wish I'd had the guts to ... the most amazing looking man of about 55, smoking a huge cigar, tanned & handsome with a nose so sharp you could cut your finger on it and dark hair longer than Richard's, sitting cross legged on the bonnet of his ancient Mercedes, eating wild strawberries and selling stuff it looked like he'd stolen out of wrecked buildings. Archetypal. He reminded me of my first crush when I must have been about 11 which was on a dark & handsome circus worker.

We also went to a beautiful place that our neighbour Patrick had told us about.

Béhuard is a small, peaceful, green island in the Loire. It's a place of pilgrimage and has a beautiful statue of the 'Queen of Peace' or 'La Reine de la Paix' as she is known here. It's high up on a rock because the river floods here and rose some 10 metres in 1910

We found our dream house here.....needs a little attention but fancy the address 'Ghost house, Behuard, La petite isle sur la Loire'