Quinze Août, a public holiday with a difference

Summer in France is the time for village fêtes and town festivities, so when Koos and I saw a poster for a 'brocante' (flea market) in Joinville, the nearest town to our Crumbly Cottage II, scheduled for the famous quinze août* (15th August), which is a public holiday, we felt we had to go. One of the more compelling reasons for going to this particular market was that it is organised every year to raise money for the sapeurs-pompiers (fire-fighters). Yes. I don't think I need to say much more on that subject given the number and extent of the wildfires across Europe this year. The pompiers deserve all the support they can get

As a result, and because we knew it was going to be fiendishly hot on quinze août (the forecast was for 38ºC), we decided to go early. The brocante was due to open at 6 a.m. but that was pushing it a bit for us. All the same, we were there before 8 a.m. and enjoyed the event very much.

At that time, it was already quite bustling but not too crowded, which suited us. Zoe made lots of friends as we wended our way along and between the stalls. Other people were there with their dogs too so her social activity meant we also interacted with plenty of the locals. Having such a friendly dog has been a revelation to me. She's the most amazing ice breaker and my French is being tested to the max thanks to my little pooch. 

I must say the setting for the brocante was perfect. It took place in the Parc au Petit Bois which is opposite Joinville's lovely chateau. I don't know about it being a 'little wood' (petit bois), though. The trees in the park are huge and magnificent and the shade they offered that morning was perfect for our purposes. My photos below give a few snapshots of this delightful event and although we left before 9:30 owing to the increasing heat and crowds, we were very happy we'd been. Given the food being prepared and the number of stalls on show, I have a feeling the firefighters will receive a substantial contribution to their coffers, as they well deserve.

I loved these wooden geese with their unique footwear.

Koos had his eye on that tempting chain saw

I loved these two with their viking horn hats!

I also thought the chainsaw looked pretty good!

Look at those beautiful trees!

Grandpa got caught again. At some point, a small child
dumped her dolly on him and he couldn't move until she came back

Isn't this tortoise/ladybird on the children's playground special?

A couple of days later, the morning was blessedly cooler so Zoe and I drove to the next village from where we walked a stretch of the canal we hadn't done before. Our first kilometre took us past the local quarry with its railway siding and wagons loaded with white limestone.

The rest of the walk seemed delightfully pastoral and we very much enjoyed the cloudy skies for a couple of hours. The bridge below was where we stopped and turned back.

And much to our surprise, we encountered a field full of sheep, the first we'd seen in the area. They were being extremely vocal about the lack of food, and probably water, but I would guess that much of their mouthy annoyance was being directed at a man carrying a bucket who appeared to be doing the rounds of livestock feeding. He evidently hadn't got to the sheep yet.

 

Having come to the conclusion we'd had enough of the intense heat for one summer, we are now back in the Netherlands where it has also been exceptionally hot, but is cooler now for the moment – a welcome change despite the pleasure we always feel at being in France. 

Enjoy your weekend allemaal and I'll be back soon with more news and views from Zeeland.

* The 15th August is the Catholic feast of the assumption of Our Lady, which is a religious holiday observed with great diligence in both France and Belgium.