2023-08-19 05:17:00
D-Day minus 24 hours. The village of Temploux, the European Mecca of “China”, is preparing for an almost biblical surge of 200,000 people, according to an aerial count from one or more mobile phone antennas, in 2019.
Despite the enormity of the expected human tide, the organizing committee, experienced in the exercise, deploys its voluntary forces with serenity, by the hundreds. However, he cannot control everything, first the weather, then a phenomenon that is difficult to quantify and inevitable: sales, 24 hours before the start of the big unpacking. “And even from Thursday, road to Spy,” a witness told us. Certainly discreetly, in the back of trucks and trunks, “because the sale is strictly prohibited by the regulations”, recalls Isabelle Beudels, spokesperson for the organization. The flea market, officially, begins on Saturday at 6 a.m. and ends on Sunday at 6 p.m.
The rule being recalled, how to temper this frenzy, and keep it in the nails, when this one has for frame an entire village devoting no less than 6 km of its roads to the event?
Here, and how is it going, exactly, the installation of the 800 expected exhibitors, out of 1200 available spaces? “It’s like the floodgates of a dam opening,” compares the president, Frédéric Renaux.
This Friday morning, we walk in strangely calm streets where suppliers and volunteers are busy waiting for the storm to come. From time to time, the strident signals of the recoil of handling equipment resound and the impact on the ground of the metal bars constituting the framework of the arbors and capitals which are assembled almost everywhere. “Me, I am waiting for the installation of the wifi to have access to the emails of the flea market and to answer them, underlines the spokesperson, installed as every year in front of the church.
At the whistle
Police officers, supposed to enforce the rules, patrol. “Technically, we might verbalize but…”, it is still complicated and difficult to do, we understand. There is indeed a minority of gazebos that are already installed, before time, and covered. Others half covered. “We cannot prevent people (especially foreigners) from coming to Temploux from Wednesday or Thursday”, explains the president. And to position themselves on the course, near their location.
Olivier, he is part of this minority who did it. French, and second-hand dealer for 20 years, he arrived Thursday evening from Roye, below Amiens. “It’s true, I cheat, but I have a disability. I mightn’t have set up my stand following 6 p.m., in the middle of the crowd”, he defends himself as he sets up his trestles, rue Lieutenant Colonel Maniette .
Anyway, he will play the game. According to him, in France, uncontrolled unpacking that does not respect the sales hours is like nipped in the bud when the day comes. The vibe is broken and bad. “To safeguard the pleasure of antiquing, he completes with lucidity, everyone must be on the same line when the whistle blows, and everyone has the same chances.” Above all, he does not want to be caught red-handed and, therefore, risk not being invited next year, “because I like the atmosphere of Temploux too much. I prefer it to that of Lille. “
Pascal himself, also an old regular, spent the night in his mobile home, he had lunch at his camping table and he begins to unpack, slowly. He admits: “It’s true that, last year, I sold a medicine cabinet to Germans on Thursday evening.”
“On private land, I can sell ahead of time. No one can tell me anything”, argues a French merchant, another regular from Temploux, specializing in old enamelled sheet metal and who owes this privilege of selling earlier to the links friendships made with local residents.
Anyway, if junk dealers cheat, it’s because there is demand, and visitors prowling around, on the lookout for finds.
How to explain this need, unusual and compulsive? “I think it’s the passion for the rare object that we absolutely want to find”, ventures the president. They are also often crazy collectors who prefer to try their luck before the rush.
These highly targeted hoarders of curiosities, we see them subtly searching, pushing exhibitors to make mistakes. They slip into the arbours through gaps, look for the driver of an immobilized van, tap on the windowpane. It’s stronger than them.
To go faster, they travel by bicycle or electric scooter. Some, not collectors at all, are immediately clear. Them, what they want is “cam” to make tune: “I’m looking for tin, do you have some, can I look?”
A little before 6 p.m., the largest attic in Belgium was open. While the junk dealers were setting up their stands, merchandise was leaving on handcarts.
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