Friday 5 March 2010

Service rapide

L'isle sur la sorgueThe Sunday antiques market in l'Isle sur la Sorgue is always a fun browse. "Service rapide" says this old toy bus - did you enjoy toy cars as a child?
Speaking of fast delivery I've got a good story to tell: on January 11th I bought a train ticket for my daughter from the SNCF (French railroads) website with the ticket to be delivered by post (it usually takes 3/4 days) - well the ticket arrived yesterday, more than 6 weeks later. How's that for postal efficiency ? The stamp shows that the letter was indeed posted on January 11th so I wonder where it sat for so long? Perhaps it slipped behind a stamping machine and was found during the big spring cleaning? Was a whole bag misdirected? Did it travel by boat to Rio and back? My imagination goes wild ; I've always been fascinated by stories of letters getting delivered twenty years late...

Le marché des antiquaires de l'Isle sur la sorgue est toujours amusant à visiter le dimanche."Service rapide" indique ce vieux car. Vous aimiez jouer aux petites voitures quand vous étiez petit(e) ? En parlant de service rapide, j'en ai eu un bel exemple cette semaine : le 11 janvier dernier j'ai acheté un billet de TGV pour ma fille sur le site SNCF, avec billet à livre par la poste. Eh bien le billet est arrivé hier, le 3 mars. Plus de six semaines pour livrer une lettre, bravo la poste ! Le cachet de la poste montre qu'elle a bien été postée le 11 janvier alors qu'est-elle devenue pendant si longtemps ? Tombée derrière la machine à timbrer et retrouvée le jour du grand nettoyage de printemps ? Partie à Rio en bateau aller-retour ? Noyée dans un amas de sacs en retard, souvenirs de jours de grève qu'on rattrape quand on a le temps ? Ce genre de mystère stimule mon imagination ; les histoires de lettres livrées avec vingt ans de retard m'ont toujours fait rêver...
Now I'll leave you for a browse through the market. That large sailboat had a bit of an adventure: just after I took my photo it was thrown on its side by a gust of wind which came out of nowhere. The incident came as a surprise as Sunday wasn't a windy day by any means - impossible to imagine that at the same moment a storm called Xinthia was devastating France's Atlantic coast.

Maintenant je vous laisse flâner dans le marché. Ce grand bateau a une histoire : juste après que j'aie pris ma photo il a été couché par une gifle de vent sortie de nulle part. C'était d'autant plus étonnant que dimanche dernier a été une journée plutôt calme ici : impossible d'imaginer qu'au même moment une tempête nommée Xinthia faisait des ravages sur les côtes vendéennes...

15 comments:

Brigetoun said...

formidable première photo - vais m'endormir avec le sourire

yvelinoise said...

La tempête a bien soufflé tout la matinée de dimanche dernier en Île-de-France, mais heureusement rien à voir avec celle de 1999.

Owen said...

Nice Express delivery truck there, hope they were faster than la Poste with your train ticket... and wow, we got high winds around Paris, but nothing like the southwest and west coast got... Must be a fun flea market, love places like that, there's always something cool to be found...

Louis la Vache said...

What a travesty that la Poste misplaced you daughter's ticket for so long. It seems the Postal service is the same in every country...

«Louis» STILL likes model cars. He has 65 models, mostly Packards and Studebakers, long-deceased American makes, but also has models of Peugeots, Citroëns, and Renaults he bought when he lived in France.

Chuck Pefley said...

The scale you've achieved with the delivery truck is wonderful. It fits so very well with the street scene background and the man walking his dog completes it perfectly!

jeandler said...

Elle est rentrée ta fille?
Courir la poste?
Il n'y a plus de postillon.

chri said...

Le couple d'hier est venu chiner à L'Isle?

Lou Ravi said...

Bien vu Chri. Mais madame a du troquer son manteau rouge pour jean-chandail. Mieux pour chiner et discuter les prix. Photos de brocantes plus que d'antiquités. Quelques objets neufs (buffet, fontes du premier plan). Et beaucoup d'objets domestiques dont on se débarrassait il y a peu...Suis intrigué par l'outil (?) vertical à manche de bois derrière le fer à braises. C'est juste là derrière ces étals que M. Légier père de l'antiquité-brocante à l'Isle avait son magasin. Aujourd'hui ils sont 250, soit la deuxième concentration après Paris. Mais c'est la crise avec plusieurs dizaines de fonds à vendre. J'adore chiner. Mais je me suis calmé...madame en avait marre de me voir partir le samedi ou le dimanche à 5h-6h du mat'...

Huberaime said...

Hello Nathalie
It may seem rather odd a French man would write in English to a French woman but I want to practise English and improve in it. I was disappointed you didn't answer my comments on your blog. Actually you did, but since your answers are scattered among many photos, I only found two of them just now, and then I jumped to the ceiling (and yet it is high). It's more convenient to leave a comment on the last illustrated small article. I'm happy you answer me because your photos are most interesting and your expression is outstanding in the two languages. I havn't yet anybody for telling me whether my blog texts are valuable or clumsy and strewn with mistakes, because I'm learning by myself. Maybe you could give me an advice and a hint.
You're right: my watermarks are too strong; now I use them soft, but I was angry (before using watermarks) to find some of my pics being published elsewhere without any link or permission.
Almost every day I have a look at your new post and I'll go on.
Thank you Hubert

Unknown said...

Seeing the thumbnail, I thought it was a real van. I would love to own it, and how great it would look on our windowsill. A real talking point.

Looks like there's some good stuff there for sale. Did you buy anything?

ratatouille's archives said...

Bonjour! Nathalie,

Nathalie said,"The Sunday antiques market in l'Isle sur la Sorgue is always a fun browse. "Service rapide" says this old toy bus - did you enjoy toy cars as a child?"

Oh! oui, I still like to "peek" inside scaled toy vehicle(s).

Hmmm...The day looked calm and pleasant...all the antiques items look nice...By the way, if my mère (mother) were there she would probably purchase every item at the outdoor antiques marketplace.

Merci de parteger!
DeeDee ;-D

Leonor said...

Chère Nathalie, une surprise pour toi. Je te remets le prix Sunshine Award pour ton blog plein beauté et d'inspiration. Prix que j'ai moi même reçu. Les règles et le prix sont visibles dans mon blog.
Très bon dimanche !

bv said...

happy birthday from the frog paresseux...
bonne chine!
best for the weekend from us. bv

maternity photography said...

Hey thanks for the sharing....
Absolutely gorgeous!! Awesome!

maternity photography said...

Hey thanks for the sharing....
Absolutely gorgeous!! Awesome!

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