Flea Market

We kept hearing about something that was going to happen on the last weekend of August, but since we really didn't know what it was and we were so busy we forgot to ask. We have heard of a lot of city activities in Lille, however we have not had the time to look into any of them because there is always some activity involving the church or church members. We kept hearing about the Braderie and this time we got totally immersed in it because it is the biggest outdoor market or flea market in Europe and our neighborhood was totally swallowed up in it. When we came home Friday evening we noticed that all parts of the streets around us were being taped off with red and white plastic tape and every available space on the sidewalk was beginning to be occupied by trucks, cars, and vans.

   Saturday morning we got up early because we had a home repair project with one of our home teaching families who live 30 minutes out of town. We drove out of our private parking spot onto the street and off we went without any problems. We worked with the Thille family all morning long and at about two in the afternoon we started to head back to our apartment.. The closer we got to Lille the more the traffic started to pile up. This is not unusual for a Saturday but soon we were at a standstill. It took us twice as long to get off the freeway as usual and when we did we noticed that all the streets heading to our place were blocked off. We tried a few side streets but they all led us to police barriers and so we kept looking for a way home. At the same time we noticed that, in our absence, street after street was filled on both sides with make shift or professional booths set up on both sides of the streets and the middle was filled with the walking public going up and down looking at whatever was placed on the ground or on tables.

   We finally found a street that wasn't blocked off and started to move towards home. We found out that this was our only avenue home because there is a fire station on the next block near our building and they needed a way to take care of emergencies and so that street was not used for the public market. We got within 200 yards of our parking place when we ran into the full force of the flea market. We pleaded with people to let us through and when they did we had just enough room to inch the car down the two blocks. It took us 20 minutes to go the 200 yards. We finally parked the car and got safely into our apartment. Once we got our wits about us we decided to see what this was all about.

   We immediately launched ourselves into a sea of humanity and we found out that the entire downtown area of 4 square miles was taken over by sellers of every type of merchandise and that there were a million buyers who had come to Lille from all over Europe to look for just the right item (s) that they were looking for.

   Every one way and two way traffic street had booths on both sides of the street and every four lane street had 4 lanes of booths. The city even arranged the different sections of the downtown by the type of merchandise that was for sale so that the interested consumer could look on the map provided and go to the sections that interested them the most. We traveled up and down the streets in our neighborhood and were struck by the amount of things for sale and the mass of humanity that had come by train, plane, car, and bus to pick over the merchandise that was for sale. It was interesting to see that many people had come prepared to buy their chosen article whether big or small. They brought furniture dollies, wheel barrows, children's wagons, and baby buggies to cart away what they bought.

   I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that Joanne was not carried away by the many things to buy and so the only thing we came away with was two pair of new socks for me and we only shelled out 2 Euros for both pairs. I must admit that there were paintings, furniture, and other things that, with a discerning eye and good knowledge of antiques, a person could come away with great buys, but we kept our hands in our pockets and were content to experience the greatest flea market we will ever see.

   On Sunday we learned our lesson and left the car in its spot and walked to the subway to get to church. There was not much activity at that time in the morning, but as we returned the streets were packed again for the final day of the Braderie. This was a once in a lifetime treat.