Foire a l'arbre

When we were last at one of the local markets one of the flyers that was put under our windscreen wiper was for a 'foire a l'arbre'. Today was the day. Or rather morning. This being Sunday, it would only be for the morning because a Frenchman needs his Sunday lunch.

It was cold in the night and we woke to white frost and -4C. Oops should have done the rearranging of the outside spaces for winter before today. If we were organised, and thought ahead, the car would be safely under the new abri de voiture and we wouldn't have to spend time defrosting and deicing. The trailer was still out from our trip to IKEA earlier in the week so with a bit of scraping of ice and demisting we were off.

What was I expecting. Well it started at 9 so maybe by 10 when we got there, quite a few people, a lot of trees and other plants, some of which would be unusual, some hanger-on stalls selling associated stuff, the usual coffee stall, maybe food of some sort...........................

We arrived to a carpark with about half a dozen stalls, a display of a machine that chops up trees into little pieces and a huddle of men around a plastic bottle of wine and plastic cups. The machine had the obligatory huddle of testosterone gazing admiringly. The stalls were all selling very mature shrubs or 10ft over pruned trees, all very ordinary things. All very expensive. The expense is partly to do with the fact that the euro is now pretty much equal to a pound but even at this they are probably twice if not three times as expensive as the UK. And all for instant planting. It is very hard to buy small trees that would settle in well and that you have to wait for. Not what the french want at all.

Ho hum, back home via the boulangerie for coffee and croissants.