Photography by Corey Amaro.
What you can find at the brocante….
"Brocante Heaven" it is filled with old
things.
Sacha says, it is enough to make him want to go to "Brocante Hell", "Certainly, it has got to have new things down there?"
At a brocante fair years ago I found a postcard of a woman impeccably dressed carrying eggs in a basket, water from the
fountain in a zinc watering can, and carrying vegetables in her white crsip apron. The framed postcard is
one of the first things I ever bought at the Brocante. It is worth nothing,
but it symbolized everything.
Life in France… I was taking my first steps.
Brocante, Heaven, Brocante, Hell … It has been a little of both.
Teasing aside I leaned over the armchair continuing my conversation with Sacha, "Nothing is one way. A mixed bag has its rewards."
Sacha said, "Hey mom have you ever thought about how cool it would be to have a replay button attached to our bodies? Then we could replay moments we wanted to change."
"I like that… on second hand maybe not? Gosh Sacha could you imagine it? Most of us wouldn't move forward as we searched for perfection. Life would be a constant replay, or on hold."
These are
some of the brocante things I have sold recently. Kissed goodbye.
I
asked Sacha if there was anything in our house that he liked that he
would be sad if I sold… Surprisingly, he said he liked the two paintings
upstairs, and a large vase. Looking him straight in the eye, I said, "I think
you like those things because you could sell them and buy something big,
new and shiny."
"You know me well!" he laughed.
I made a
mental note to myself: Glue paintings to the wall, cement vase to the
floor. Buy that boy some slick, shiny black Inox things.
Later Sacha would ask me if I had to pick three things from our
house and get rid of the rest that what would they be… I said, "The
paintings, the urn and the two armchairs that we are sitting on."
His smile was like a hug.
I got up to write addresses on the packages I sold, and had to send out. I wrote as the return address:
C. Amaro
Rue de la Brocante. As soon as I wrote "Brocante" instead of my street's name I knew I was in heaven.
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Note:
Thanks everyone for helping to select a creative winner for the French brocante guessing game.
Cynthia you are the winner with your dancing monks comment! Bravo! Please send me your address and I will send you a French brocante souvenir.
What does your heaven look like?
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