Europe letter: Street traders look to shift mounted deer heads, Samurai-style swords and one working gramophonefrom the French city of Biarritz are admiring a grandfather clock that stands out in what is mostly a sea of tat for sale.
The wares are put out on pop-up tables, rugs laid on the ground, or stacked in cardboard Fyffes banana boxes. One table has several fencing swords for sale, another has a small statue of Lady Justice. There are piles of shoes, metal fixtures, candlesticks, old pipes, drills and other tools. People browsing the market sift through rows and rows of old clothes on racks. Every hour or so the sound of something being knocked off a table and smashing on the cobblestones of the square rings out.
Another trader, Mourad, who is from Belgium and has lived in Brussels for 20 years, has been selling at the market for about three years. There have been some “crazy” items bought and sold, he says, citing a friend who picked up parts of a small aeroplane. “Today I am not selling but my colleagues are selling ... Even if it rains people come and sell.”