Aillant sur Tholon

By now dear friends, you know how much I love brocantes.  And I havent been very good about posting my recent jaunts. But I recently went to a massive one thanks to a tip from a friend.

This one was in a little village called Aillant sur Tholon, about an hour and a half away from Paris.  Its tiny with a population of about 1400 or so on a good week but on THE brocante weekend, the population swells to about 30000.  So I had no qualms dragging my family to this brocante. How could I not?

I started out bright and early, when you could still see the dewdrops glistening on the grass. And I was far from the first bird there, professional buyers started at 4 am, in order to catch the choicest bits. That said, there were tons of things to marvel at. As this is a picture heavy post, read on after the jump...

One of the first stands I saw was carrying some wonderful 20s era jewelry and some wonderful bakelite necklaces, like these two...

Here was a cool vintage child size racing car

I loved these vintage wooden wine holders.

I wasn't sure what these woven rackets were for but I thought they were quite pretty.

I loved this tiny agenda from 1901. I can just imagine a lady writing down her daily occupations with a dainty feminine hand.

Like most towns, the rendezvous point was the Church as it is the tallest building around.

Here is a shot of the main street starting to fill up. All in all the brocante spread out over 6 kilometers. I can tell you that I had quite a workout that day!

Whenever I am at a brocante, I am always on the lookout for beautiful jewelry and my beloved beads of course, but there never fails to be some beautiful old fashioned toys for children. I keet seeing them and I am tempted to start a collection.

See that delicate little doll house sitting in the middle of the floor?

And look at this little schoolhouse scene..

I had to take a second photo.  It comes complete with the class list and little notebooks.



These little sewing machines are so pretty!

After the fresh early morning, the sun started shining earnestly and this furry one decided to take matters into his own hands. I would not have minded a dip in the river myself!

These folks had it good, lunch was a picnic along the river.

I finished tired but happy, with these cheerful sunflowers waving us on towards our way home.