The Boot Fair was....

Posted by Rosie

.... really tiring but excellent fun :-))

It was supposed to start at 9am but I was told I would need to get there at 6.30 in order to get to my pitch - but it was DARK at 6.30 so I delayed until 7am ....... and got stuck in a massive french traffic jam. Now the French cannot park or squeeze though small gaps in their cars at the best of times and they certainly cannot reverse, leading to the inevitable gridlock. But it did somehow clear and I managed to get to my nicely placed pitch right in the middle of the village.

Then came the fun task of trying to get an awful lot of "stuff" on a 3m pitch - plants, cakes, preserves, my general "tut", the general "tut" of my friend, and some other bits of "tut" another friend had given me - oh and a rather large brush cutter!! But my friend, J and I managed it and settled down to the next 9 hours of high commerce.

Well lemon curd and dandelion jam were very popular as were small iced cakes and fruit cakes. Plants, especially herbs went well as did veggie seedlings and when I totted up at the end of the day I had a taken a very acceptable 140€.

But it was J who made the best sale of the day. Remember that brushcutter? There was a lot of interest in it and as she wanted 100€ we started by asking for 120€. Initially everyone walked away until a man and his 2 sons arrived. "Oooh - c'est cher" he said. We both did a Gaelic shrug and he wandered off - but not without several backward glances at the brushcutter. He wanted that brushcutter. Half an hour later he was back asking if he could start it. Would it start? Would it 'eck? The man rang his friend. Both continued to try and start it whilst J and I stood there, backs to them praying for the engine to fire up. Our prayers were eventually answered and a huge cloud of smoke drifted over us and the neighbouring stalls as it spluttered into life (They had obviously flooded it, but it was going). I looked at J - she looked at me. "It'll never sell" we muttered. The men continued to fiddle then came over and much to our astonishment offered 80€. But J's husband wanted 100€. We stood our ground because we knew he really wanted it and brushcutters are very expensive here to buy new. He huffed and puffed. "100€" I said. He wavered. "80€" he said. "100€" I said "and I'll throw in half a dozen eggs and pack of scones". SOLD!!!