Temploux Brocante Market

I enjoy a good flea market and I saw one mentioned in the Thursday Stars & Stripes in the village of Temploux, Belgium.  So I checked it out online at Temploux Brocante Market There is a menu option for English on the top of the page.  It looked interesting, is only 72 miles away, and it was a beautiful day today.  I packed a lunch in my cooler bag, packed two drinks in another cooler bag, grabbed my camera and 200 Euros and headed west this morning.  According to the website the market stalls are along a six kilometer (3.72 miles) route in the village.  There is room for 1,500 stalls.

The market began back in the late 70's as a fair, which later included craft venders.  Later still second-hand goods venders started setting up stalls.  In 1987 the market morphed into what it is now, strictly a Flea Market and collectors' market.  It is supposed to be the largest (and "greatest") flea market in Belgium.  I do not know if it is, in fact, the largest in Belgium but it is certainly the biggest outdoor market I have ever been to.

I arrived at the edge of town at 1215 hrs and made the final turn off of the higway.  From here it is three kilometers to the market and the parked cars were lined up on both side of the lane all the way out to the main road (3 kms of parked cars).  I drove until I found a freshly vacated spot and parked nose in to a farmer's field.  I could see two other roads in the distance and they were also lined with parked cars as far as you could see.  A lucky farmer nearer the town made a parking lot out of one of his fields and was charging three Euros per car.  I did a quick count of rows and number of cars in a row and he had over 440 cars parked in there.  That's 1320 Euros and since people would come and go all day I imagine he was taking in at least three thousand Euros a day.  Lucky guy.

There were thousands of people there but I never felt crowded.  Yes, people would stop dead right in front of you and I got bumped pretty often but that is the norm in Europe.  Europeans do not stand in lines either so it was a little annoying at times when people just walked in front of you.  But really, I thought it wasn't bad at all.  There were plenty of people there with babies in strollers but very few walking children.  I saw a few wheelchairs too.  The market loop was on roads so the walking was easy and if you had a stroller it would be no problem; it is not cobblestones.

There were plenty of very well-maintained porta-lets; it cost 40 Euro cents and well worth the price.  They were cleaned after every use.

There were also plenty of places to eat and get drinks.  I took my own food mainly to keep my costs down and had my own drinks too but I did buy a two-scoop ice cream cone at 1500 hrs (3:00 PM) for three Euros.

This place had everything.  I don't care what you collect; there was a vender that had it.  I won't even write a list of things I saw, when I say anything, I mean anything.  I have not done much flea marketing here so I do not know if the prices were good or not.  It was apparent that the venders knew what they had and they knew what it was worth.  I did hear some good haggeling so prices were negotiable.  However, this was strictly a French language market.  The Dutch and German people that I heard had to try French or hope the vender knew some English (many did). 

That is one of the (many) odd things about Belgians.  It is a tri-lingual country.  The northern half (Flanders) speaksFlemish-Dutch and the southern half (Wallonia) speaks French.  There is a small region, formerly belonging to Germany, where German is spoken.  Nearly all the Flemish Belgians also French but almost none of the Wallonians even attempt to learn Dutch.  And even if they do speak Dutch most of them won't, they will only speak French (though they understand what you said in Dutch). I run into this all the time.  The few people I spoke to (in Dutch) clearly understood what I was saying but they responded in French.  I do not speak French but over the years have come to understand what is meant.

I will list a few items that I thought were interesting to be of value there though. I saw several stands selling American car registration plates. Apparently some states' plates are more desirable than others. Prices ranged from 16-24 Euros per plate. I also saw quite a few tin advertising signs and the American ones pulled a premium price. Stock and railroad certificates are highly collectable in Europe and these were at a number of stands. US coins brought unusual prices: a 1987 quarter was being sold for 6.50 Euro. Both modern (still in circulation) and old US coins were highly priced. US Military badges, regimental and unit crests, and other US awards and decorations were commonly seen and sold for a good bit of change.




I walked the market from 1215 to 1700 (5:00 PM) and saw a little less than half the market.  But the temp had climbed to 82, it was very sunny, and I knew I had the return drive so I called it quits.  The market runs through tomorrow afternoon but I saw enough and won't head back for a second day.  I might have a touch of ADD and after almost five hours I was hitting sensory saturation; I just couldn't look at another stall of goods.
 

One thing I especially liked is that no one is allowed to sell crafts or first-hand merchandise.  So many markets in the states are filled with people selling socks, CDs, crappy crafts, and other junk from China that they aren't really flea markets anymore. All this stuff was definately used.

 

This is another one of those events you should mark on your calendar for next year if you can't get there tomorrow (21 August).