Vide Greniers

Totally agree Sh-sh. I enjoy a browse around a VG and, like you, have, on occasion, taken a pitch myself to do a bit of clearing out. What used to be a pleasant pastime to wander and sometimes see a little treasure is more and more becoming a quick whizz past all the traders to find the few householders tucked in amongst them to browse their wares. The traders are always overpriced, and mostly it’s the same stuff that they must drag with them to each VG.

When I have taken a pitch and got there at what I would think an early enough hour (about 7 am) I have been mobbed by traders asking me if I’ve got different things before I’ve even set up my stall, let alone got anything unpacked! I know they have a living to make but, if they are going to become more and more evident at the VG’s perhaps organisers could section pitches off and allocate an area specifically for traders?

I do wonder if those professional dealers are doing a lot of money ? I’ve been visiting a lot of VG those last few years, and noticed a lot of them have desappeared, replaced by new faces.

He could have found me in a VG, as a second hand wife

We went to the Bulat one yesterday, having missed a few due to rain and chickenpox etc.   However whereas I usually think the Bulat one is the best (it’s a beautiful town, and the winding centre makes for lots of pitch opportunities and little lanes – I wonder how a Christmas car boot would look, with mulled drinks and lights in the trees?  Anyway…), yesterday I hate to say it but we didn’t stay long at all as it was mostly tat.  I mean, I don’t go to a car boot expecting an outdoor version of Harrods, but most of the stuff was tipworthy!  Even the chap with the van and the large assortment of garden tools (possibly the one people mean?) didn’t have any useful bits and pieces like usual (saw as drill bits, hole saws etc).

Plus… they’ve put in weird new verges, meaning a lot of the stalls had wooden posts in the way and you had to cross a muddy bank to get to them.

Used to like going to the Bulat VG but this last year find it to difficult to attend having poor mobility if I am forced to park way away find carrying any purchases limited and as said some of the stalls now taken over by more professional sellers and seem to display very expensive tat. I used to like the stalls selling off excess plants etc and even this has become expensive/garden centre prices compared to home grown.

Thank you fruitcake for your kind offer not sure how or where to send mess to you I am quite a distance from you and at the moment stocked up many of the rescues do not use bedding because of the laundering but smaller rescues often do especially with the oldies. I have to say lovely that you thought of us.

“It can stay cancelled until they rethink their strategy with regards to tat traders pitch allocation.”

I fully appreciate the difficulties,  but how do you tell a French rusty tool seller that they cannot have a pitch on a vide-grenier in France. We went to one last year and there was fistycuffs at 0400 because one Frenchman was in a pitch that another Frenchman considered his own, when the organisers to whom you pay rent, state that all pitches are first come first served.

We used to enjoy going to the vides and having a look round at all the different stalls and buying a few bits and pieces but now it is just the same old rusty tools as the last time you went. If there is anything new and half decent, they want to charge you more than a new one would cost. I cannot understand how they sell anything but clearly they make enough to make it worth their while.