LE SOMAIL VIDE GRENIER 2015 - COMMUNITY YARD SALE ALONG THE CANAL DU MIDI

Vide Grenier is the French term for a community yard sale. Literally translating as Empty Attic, vide greniers can be anything from a few tables in a local community hall to a kilometer or more of trash and treasures. Le Somail, a small hamlet along the Canal du Midi, hosts on of the earlier, larger ones of the spring. Amateurs and professionals alike line up along both sides of the Canal and through the village, selling everything from clothing used and new to tools, from collectibles to furniture. It took us two hours to see everything there was to see. We spent all of 10 Euros on a pretty, flowered ceramic umbrella stand.

The temperature rose to the 70s by mid morning on a beautiful, blue sky day.

You had to look carefully. You never knew when a VW Bus might be headed your way.

Here's the only floating shop that we saw, selling everything from baskets to spices. How's that for a life, living and retailing on a barge on the Canal du Midi?

Mostly folks were just selling their own stuff, though.

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