Le Vide Grenier

The Perfect Spot
Originally uploaded by malias.

The vide grenier or attic sale a popular pastime in Paris. In the UK these things tend to take place in fields and car parks and are called car boot sales but in Paris they sprawl along the high street for anything up to half a mile (very annoying if you just want to get from A to B).

In both places though the crap you find is pretty similar. An old Subbuteo set with several players without heads, a ceramic flamenco dancer that you got on a trip to the Costa del Sol in 1991, old videos, chipped mugs, smelly t-shirts, typewriters with keys that stick, computers from the last century that only run on the DOS operating system.

Yet people come in their droves they rummage and they buy. What is it that draws people to them? Is it is the prospect that amongst all that junk they might just might find a real treasure going for a song. I must admit if there is one in my neighbourhood in Paris I may pop down for a look. Though I still haven't found anything that's any good. But who knows.

Where there's muck there's brass.