Vide Greniers / Brocante

[ButFirstACoffee]

Has anyone had any experience of these? (Hope I'm using the right terminology - once yearly flea markets/car boot sales in France.) Have been wading through French websites but my GCSE French will only get me so far.

Vide Greniers/Brocantes are the french equivalent of anything from tiny village/school fundraising car boot sale to mahoosive antique fair type events.

If you are looking to find when and where they are for during your stay in a given area in France then try googling brocante and the number of the department for the area. i.e. for my area it would be 'brocante 37', where you will find list of all those due to be held, they usually state if they are annual or monthly.

I don't have loads of experience of picking out the difference between which to visit and which to avoid...but we tend to go along when there is one due to be happening in a place we have yet to visit and make a day of it, either picking up the ingredients for a picnic (always good local producers there) or eat the 'restauration sur place' usually sausage & chips!...and then explore after touring the brocante.

I haven't been to one in the UK in 10 yrs to compare but rule of thumb...

Not all are the same!
All seem to be on for a very long time in France, often early morning through to 6-7pm.
In rural areas they tend to be part of an annual town/village fete with lots of other things going on certainly out of big towns. One near us in Chaumussay coincides with a bike marathon event.
Big towns tend to have more regular, professional, antique and 'marche au puces' or flea markets.
The smaller villages don't always have the smaller brocantes... two local to us are annual and have tiny populations but enormous brocante!
e.g. La Celle-Guenand under 400 people live there but their brocante brings 1,000's! www.lacelle-guenand.fr/#

I use

vide-greniers.org

It shows most of the main ones.