I like to help the Locals...

31/7/2013

Bonjour mes amis!

I like to help the Locals...

Specific Locals...

As in, the people up the Street...

On Saturdays...

The Men and Women who laboriously show up every week...

So I can search out all their BROCANTE Items!!!

I love to do new things on the weekend, but I really prefer to be in Orléans on Saturday mornings, so I can search the Brocante, or the "not quite antiques".  I mean, these people are amazing.  Sometimes, I think they just scrounge their Grandma's Attic before they show up on Saturday mornings.  There's so much cool stuff.  Do they know what they have here?

The other weekend, dear friends came to visit from Germany...

Beep!  Beep!

Wait a Minute!  That's me, backing up the Truck...

I have to give a little background here...
A few weeks ago, I thought I would only have one more possible Saturday to go to the Brocante, so I went to Dr. J, and pleaded with him that he shouldn't go back to Texas, without atleast once going to the local Brocante.  (I mean, these people faithfully show up every week...we needed to go greet our neighbors, right?)  Begrudgingly, he said "Okay..."!  I was shocked.  Well, what followed was not unexpected, "...But then, you need to go with me to the..."  (Sorry!  I have seriously forgotten where he mentioned I had to go with him).  Anyway, I obliged, MOSTLY BECAUSE I REALLY WANTED TO GO TO THE BROCANTE ONE MORE TIME!!!  He enjoyed it...I think...but definitely didn't need as much browsing time as me.  Oh well...to be expected!  Just his making an appearance was good enough for me!

Anyway, back to our Friends from Germany who visited...
Well, they arrived on Friday night, and we had a long drawn-out dinner, and started to discuss plans for Saturday.  Well, all of a sudden, Dr. J pipes up with, "you really should go to the Brocante on Saturday morning"!

You could have knocked me over with a feather!

The man refused me so many times.  I didn't figure he'd let us take the time AT ALL to go there!

But we did...and we had fun...

Isn't my friend, P.J. so chic with her green shirt and coordinating bag?

Even our boys got "into it"...

And our friend, Doug did a little bartering too!

And after Dr. J left the Brocante, I made a nice purchase!  (And in case you're wondering...yes, I did confess my purchase to Dr. J, and he seemed fine with it...except he still always asks me how I'm going to get it home?  How many more times can I suggest to him that we charter a boat home, so I can do more Brocante shopping?  Next to visiting Châteaux, Brocante Shopping is my next favorite thing to do in France!)

Here She is!

Isn't She Sweet?

I know She looks a little shabby now, but She's French and She's all mine, and She will be a beauty once I work on HER a little bit.

I can call her "HER", because a Lamp (La Lampe, in French!) is a feminine noun!  ( I know you didn't want a Grammar Lesson...but sometimes I figure it's important to explain myself)!

Oh!  I need to mention one other thing.  I got her for Ten Euros less than the original asking price!  Yup!  I'm so good at bartering in French...but I'm sure it also helped that I was ready to walk away...

Can you help me out?  I think I'd like to name Her...but She's got to have a French name...what do you think?

"Colette"?

or

Juliette?

or

Margaux?

I think I'm leaning toward Colette!  It's such a sweet name.  Which would you choose?

By the way...you have a little time to think about this, because I'm going on Vacation.  If I can pop in, you know I will.  Otherwise, I'll return just as soon as possible, because I just love sharing "Jewels" with you!

Until next time...

Jan