Braderie Day 2

Sunday was the final day of our first Braderie. It was great, productive, but I'm glad it's only 2.5 days because we are tired. We bought four more chairs today and two more tables. It took two trips to carry all that back to our new apartment. Then we had to pick up the desk and rug we had bought on Saturday and get that back to the new place as well. We also picked up some glassware today, so we are feeling better about the gradual move to the new place. We've already ordered a refrigerator, washing machine, television, and a vacuum that will be delivered to the new place on Clay's birthday, 18 September. Our bed and a couple other items will be coming from IKEA; we've been out to their store twice already but will do the order online this next week. 

About the Broderie:  I look forward to it next year when we don't have to look for necessary items and can focus on all the unnecessary and interesting stuff. We ate mussels for two days in a row and they were delicious. It's a huge party mostly event for people under 30. That's fine and all, but I wish the city managed it better. At any event this size in the U.S. there would have been hundreds of port-a-johns. Here there were none. Consequently, public urination was rampant, especially down our little alley, even after someone broke through the construction barrier to the park under development next door. This event has taken place for hundreds of years, I can't believe they haven't figured this out yet. If you serve beer, you need to provide a place to pee. I like to pee outside as much as the next guy, but when I took Bailey out last night we saw at least two dozen young men pissing and about half as many women as well. I was very tempted to take pictures with the flash on my camera but it would probably have started a fight. Seriously, Lille could do better. However, on the plus side, I saw and heard of no violence and no shootings. I guess some public urination isn't a bad trade off. I'll take it, but it could be avoided with some better planning by the city. I can only hope for a good hard rain in the next day or two to wash it all away. 

Below are some more pictures of the thing we brought home today, and a couple of Bailey doing "ups" on the boulders in the nearby park. 

I'm glad that the drunks broke through the construction barrier on the end of our alley in one way because it gives us access to the nearest green space without going out on the streets through the crowds. 

Bailey has missed our walked in the Citadel for the last couple of days but we'll get back to it tomorrow.

This is the Porte de Paris

And here's the new things we picked up today.

The best buy of the sale may be this rug, approximately 5'x8' for 15€