It was the Virlet brocante today

Virlet, the village where I live (well, where I don't live - it's about 4kms from where I live but it's my postal address as there isn't another village any nearer) is the last outcrop of the Combrailles.

We're looking north-east here right along the scarp slope that forms the edge of the Monts de la Combraille (the pinky orange scar right on the upper-right edge of the photo is the quarry where our sand and gravel comes from). The view is, of course, quite impressive from here as the village is situated on an outcrop - a kind-of finger that points north-eastward across the valley and the plains.

It's the kind of place that any half-decent and self-respecting baron would have thrown a castle back in the dim and distant dark ages because it's like this on two sides, the third side is something of a similar ilk but not so steep, and the fourth side is a ridge-top that brings the main road up from Pionsat and part of which was the old Pilgrims' Way to Santiago De Compostela.

The Pilgrims would spend the night at the Abbey de Bellaigues, founded in the 11th Century and situated down the steep slope to the north-west of the village and then they would climb up here and walk along the old ridgeway through Les Coursieres and through the forest path that passes about 200 metres from my house on the way to the next stop at La Cellette.

So that's the exciting bits over. And I'm glad that there was something exciting because the brocante certainly wasn't.

Dozens of stalls, dozens of vendors, a huge crowd of people (including some from the Footy Club with whom I had a good chat) and loads of interesting objects.

But the prices!!!!!

Someone wanted 40 Euros for a milk churn. Someone else wanted 30 Euros for a 1930s handpump. And 25 Euros for a manual coffee grinder. And 15 Euros for a car CD player etc etc. It's a far cry from when I bought a chest of drawers for 7 Euros, a table-top washing machine for 10 Euros, a table-top saw without motor for 5 Euros etc.

The Virlet brocante used to be one of the best around but these prices will just scare everyone off. It was a real disappointment. The only think that I bought was a 1960s Michelin "Green Guide" of the Auvergne - tatty and falling apart but a respectable one Euro.

The most exciting thing was in the car park. A superficially-nice but underneath-the-paint-really-quite-tatty Citroen "H" van transformed into a mobile home was parked up not too far from Caliburn.

Now I like these vans and have been looking around for one in something of a desultory fashion for many years. And if I did find one, turning it into a caravanette would be quite interesting.

They are mostly petrol but some were fitted with an old Perkins diesel engine and that would be quite interesting. A nice low-pressure pump that would run on vegetable oil would suit me fine.

Thinking about things, apart from Caliburn of course it's been ages since I bought a car - 4.5 years in fact. A nice old collectors' car or van would suit me fine.

So apart from the brocan't, I spent the rest of the day bringing my website up-to-date. All the photos since July 2009 are now on line and the monthly photo pages up to July this year are now on-line too. I can now start catching up on a few other things.