We had a great day yesterday - an early breakfast followed by a 30 minute drive to Marseillan Plage where there is an enormous flea market each weekend, all through the year. It's a favourite Sunday morning blast for me, and Ali, who loathes mornings, will sometimes come treasure hunting too. Yesterday we went with some lovely guests who are here from Dublin.
At the Pezenas antiques fair in May Ali and I were taken by a water-jousting shield, but at 100 euros the price was too high for me. So imagine my delight when I nailed one for a good deal less than that yesterday.
So what is water-jousting? Imagine two teams of men, each with a large rowing boat like a huge gondola with a long platform on one end, upon which stand a chap with a wooden lance in one hand and heavy wooden shield in the other. Each team rows like the clappers towards each other and the jousters try to push each other off their platform. Each local coastal town has a team and there is a hotly contested league. Hundreds of tourists turn up to watch from the canal or quay sides. It's huge fun.
I've stolen the bottom two of the photos below from Photo Passion 55 - a blog where there are many fantastic photos of this area.
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