Flea Market in Place St. Sernin

Melanie Cosgrove, a friend from church, invited me to go to a flea market at Place St. Sernin. The flea market would take place on Saturday, May 23. I was excited to have that chance, because Ben was not likely to attend something like that, so I quickly agreed. Our plan was to meet at Place Capitole, which is a rather large Place located at what could be considered Toulouse's downtown. Place Capitole could be rather busy, no matter what time of day it was and on this particular Saturday was no exception. They had set up tents for some sort of an event, so it would be hard to see from one end of the Place to the other. This made it hard for me to find a place to sit that would be visible. Visible for me to see where Melanie would come from, or for her to find me. I reluctantly chose a spot, which was near one of the busy roads coming in and out of the Place, it was on the edge, for that was the only place in which to sit. But since the road was a main road coming into the Place I figured Melanie would come from that direction. I sat for a long time, it seemed though it was probably only ten minutes. Melanie had sent me a few text messages saying where to meet and what not. The last one seemed a bit worried. So refusing to text her back, I quickly called her. We then agreed to meet under the clock at the Capitolium which is the large building where Toulouse city officials usually have meetings. It is also the place to find some fantastic art. I quickly found the clock Melanie had told me about and easily enough we found each other in the mess of the Place.
"We must have been waiting for each other on opposite ends of the the Capitole" said Melanie grinning.
"Yes it seems that way" I said, grinning back.
"Thanks for coming by the way"
"No problem"
We then easily started for Place St. Sernin which from the Place Capitole is located down the rue de Taur. The next Place is only a few minutes from the Place Capitole and was already bustling with people selling their antiques and electronics. Each "booth" had their own plot of cement in which to place their antiques or wares. Some of them displayed on blankets, others had them in boxes and a few people had tables to display all they had to offer. As we continued around the Basilica St. Sernin there were quite a few antiques of all shapes and sizes. So no matter what you fancy, one could find it amongst the wares sold.
"The flea market's website said it was only for licensed antique dealers, but it doesn't quite seem that way" said Melanie, somewhat disappointed.
"Yeah, but even in the states they aren't always true antiques" I said, understanding her immediately.
Though Melanie was disappointed, we found quite a bit to fascinate us. Melanie kept her eye out for Zippo lighters, I just was there for fun, if I happened to find something I knew Ben had said I could buy it. Surprisingly, there were quite a few wooden clogs, I told Melanie they reminded me of home. Mostly, they just reminded me of Pella and the camaraderie of Tulip Time. It wasn't really French, but I knew if I purchased some of those clogs, they would remind me of Tolouse and living in France. So, after our second round of the Basilica, I began to seriously look at the clogs and with Melanie's interpertative help, purchased some for 15 euro. Besides the clogs, there were quite a few things that caught my eye. I saw lots of pretty tea-sets and china, some even from France, but as Ben and I were nearing the end of our stay, I was more concerned with the amount of things that would either head back to the states in our luggage and what room we would have in our shipment. So, I stopped purchasing and continued to be amazed at the amount of true antiques. There appeared to be an abundance of WW II helmets, I had to wonder where the sellers had found them, if they had dug them up somewhere or if they had purchased them somewhere. I never found out, but I was happy to think about it. Melanie finally found a lighter that would suit her and quickly bought it after learning how to refill it and take care of it. We both had seemed successful with our purchases, thus ending our short time together.