Cruising in the Brocante-Mobile

PHOTO You can get it Here: Bras 1 euro, thongs only 50 centimes.

What do you do all day in France? Our friends back in the states are always curious. Well, Saturday is (veggie) market day, and on Sundays, April through October, toute le monde goes to another sort of marché: Brocantes, or les puces (flea markets). On any given week-end there will be a dozen or so within an hour’s drive, as nearly every village has one yearly. The villagers empty their attics, and a few traveling professionals unpack their vans full of antiques. The villagers also man the buvette, seducing shoppers with grilled sausages, pommes frites, and waffles under a tent with long tables. Sometimes there is an accordion player wandering among the brightly colored parasols of the vendors. There are plenty of kids, dogs, spirited bartering, and a general air of festivity. The sleepy, historic villages of southern Burgundy are beautiful, and it’s a great way to see the area, and maybe score a bargain as well.

Our friends Monty and Ali have a van which holds six, definitely a Party Car, and on Sundays it often morphs into the Brocante-Mobile, with lots of room for purchases. At our market café the day before, we plot our route with friends. There are 3 ways to find out where the flea markets, which are all over France, can be found each Sunday: special on-line sites which list them (google ‘puces’ and the name of the department you’re visiting), the local newspaper’s petites announces (classified ads), and a little book you can find at any bookstore here called L’agenda des Brocantes, published annually for each region of France. We check all three to be sure we know all the choices, then we pick two or three villages to hit that are in the same general area. We connive to arrive before our Dutch friend Rudy, a professional dealer with a great eye who has been known to scarf up all the good stuff before we get there.

As my friend Darlene always says, “It’s mostly junk, but it’s fascinating because it’s French junk”. So true! There are toys, antique or everyday porcelain, vintage linens and lace, home accessories of dubious taste, tools new and old, and everything else you can think of. Some of my finds this summer: a cute set of red and white espresso cups (3 euros); a set of exquisite oversized embroidered linen napkins (15 euros); and a used pink bicycle for my granddaughter (8 euros). The guys wander a bit but most of them end up sipping wine in the shade at the buvette, while the girls hit it hard, hoping to unearth that one hidden trésor. To leave empty handed would be rare, as would making a great impact on your wallet.

Photo: I considered a colander, which monsieur graciously modeled for me.

Today I spot something I want to buy for Ron, an old screw driver with a pretty wooden handle, smoothed by years of use and with the maker’s initials burned into the wood. Monsieur the vendor, bien installé in a sagging deck chair in the sun, is sound asleep, and must be roused for the purchase. He awakens with a loud snort and sheepishly accepts my 2 euros.

When we’ve all admired each other’s purchases and loaded them up, we hop into the Brocante-Mobile to find the best local restaurant (did you know you can load the Michelin guide onto your iPhone? Fantastic). And we’re off to partake of that other great French institution, Sunday lunch. Followed by une petite sieste, of course---a perfect French Sunday.

Photo: The stressful life of a vendor requires a nap as well.

Switching over to markets of the culinary kind, the summer tomatoes have arrived, everyone’s favorite food. We feast on them daily, as you most likely do. But when you’ve had your third Caprese salad of the week, it’s time to branch out. Here are five ideas—but we’re hungry for more! Please share yours by clicking on Comments below , or go to the Share a Recipe section.

RECIPES: 5 Easy Pieces, starring Summer Tomatoes

Tomatoes Baked with Goat Cheese: Pascale, who lives in my friend Ellen’s village, taught her this easy trick: Slice a big summer tomato in half and scoop out the interior (and save it for your brushetta). Fill the interior with a plump morsel of very fresh goat cheese, and bake for about 30 minutes in a 375(190c) degree oven. Top with parsley. This makes a great starter for a dinner party.

When I tried it, I sautéed bread crumbs in butter with some finely chopped shallots and put this on top before I baked it.

Ron’s favorite Tomato Pie: In a glass pie plate, layer slices of tomato with very thin slices of sweet onions, like Vidalias, and a cup of cheddar cheese. Repeat layers, ending with cheese. Beat two eggs well with salt and pepper, and pour over all. Top with bread crumbs and bake at 325 (160c) for 35 to 40 minutes.

Monty’s Tomato Tart: Roll out store-bought puff pastry on a cookie sheet or pizza pan, nice and thin like you were making a pizza, crimping edges. Prick with fork, cover with foil, add pie weights. Bake 10 minutes, remove weights and foil. Spread with grainy mustard. Top with sautéed onions, then tomato slices. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, herbs de Provence, and a light sprinkling of grated mild cheese (like swiss or gruyère). Bake for 20 minutes at 350(175c) degrees.

Tomato and Haricort Vert Salad: Steam beans until tender-crunchy and plunge into ice water; drain well. Mix beans with some homemade mayonnaise, to which you’ve added an extra dab of grainy mustard. Arrange on a platter and make a well in the center. Mound tomato wedges in the center. Sprinkle beans with toasted walnuts, and tomatoes with chopped parsley, to garnish.

Tomato Crudités: Slice tomatos onto a big platter. Arrange some thinly sliced red onions over the top, and finely chopped shallots. Put a fan of sliced avocados in the center along with a few radishes, and wedges of hard boiled eggs around the edges. Sprinkle all with fresh basil and drizzle with walnut oil and lemon juice, good sea salt and ground pepper. Pray for endless summer.

In the Comments section the past week: lots of new ways to drink ice tea, including something called an Arnold Palmer, and with vodka (why not?). Plus cats, & dogs too: some shout-outs to the expat cat, and Carol encounters a hush puppy in New Jersey.

Comments

[karen mccall dunning]

Another source for locating "les puces et les vides greniers": the monthly magazine "Antiquities Brocante". Sold at almost every tabac, it covers markets (both regular and "special occasion") for the upcoming 6 weeks. It also has feature articles on categories of various items collected by les chineurs (transferware, majolica, naval memorabilia, etc.) and sample pricing of such items found in flea markets across France. It is my bible for buying trips to France!

[Barbara Andolsek Paintings]

Love the 'Tomatoes with Baked Goat Cheese' recipe...

[Patricia Glee Smith]

My house is full to the eves with vide brocante booty. It is one of my favorite things to do in France, the excuse being that I need all that stuff for my still life paintings. My last two pantings really do contain some interesting bargains, including some of the wonderful linens I collect! I have enough old linen sheets to start a hotel.... and it is so much fun talking to the sellers!

[Mark Kane]

whoa, those tomato dishes made me hungry, but it's still mid-morning in Des Moines. Big news, a one-star chef from Strasbourg has moved for love to Des Moines and opened a restaurant. Oh-ho! The other night, the amuse-bouche was a variation on the good old breadstick, made from filo, rolled up or folded in a thin cylinder with a core or a seam of grated Parmesan and baked till flaky. It was intensely savory

[cynthia at the daily basics]

I am coming over just to go flea market hunting for French Junk and have the Tomato Pie with you - FUN FUN POST - you are totally amazing, Lynn!!

[Genie -- Paris and Beyond]

What a great Sunday story with the colander hat, used thongs (ewwww!), napping vendor, the Brocante-Mobile, and then tomatoes!

I have eaten 1 to 2 tomatoes a day all summer because I know that too soon they will be gone until next year. Our favorite tomato pie: deep dish prebaked pie crust, 4 tomatoes peeled and sliced, 1/2 cup chopped green onion, 10 fresh basil leaves chopped, 1 cup mozzarella, 1 cup grated cheddar, 1 cup mayonnaise, salt and pepper -- Drain the tomatoes and then layer with basil and onion in pie shell. Season with salt and pepper. Combine remaining ingredients and spread on top of the tomatoes. Bake 30 min at 350F. Yummmmmmy!

Thanks especially for the Tart recipe! Off to the fruit stand to get more tomatoes!

Passe un bon weekend!
Genie

[Trevor]

Thanks Lyn some great ideas with tomatoes. My current favorite is cherry tomatoes fried in olive oil and balsamic with lots of parsley and thyme, throw a fried egg on top and hey! before you can say 'ooh la la' you have petit dejeuner.

[Carol]

My weakness at these vide-greniers is the objects for kitchens which also have French words on them. I left my friend's house saying I was just going to look. They laughed and said the French equivalent of that's like walking past a fountain and saying you won't drink the water. So I bought a set of stoneware that I hauled back to the USA with the help of students. Poubelle de Table, which looks like a soup tureen and holds things that collect on your plate like shells and bones. Poubelle means garbage can in other contexts. Also in the set were Oignon (onion), Echalote (shallot), ail (garlic) and sel (salt). Each piece has the word and a red rose decoration. My friends told me the custom of these sets was a bit out of date, but they thought my purchase was pretty as well as heavy. They laughed.