Saint Martin's Day

It's a big deal in France and in other spots around Europe, a day to remember Martin of Tours, a Roman soldier, who once cut his cloak in half to keep a beggar from freezing and was rewarded for his generous gift. In medeival times Saint Martin's Day was an agrarian feast that signaled the end of the growing season and the time to begin periodic fasting to ensure that the crops lasted through the winter.

These days the feast involves food trucks, tchotchkes vendors, children's games and amusements and a whole village celebrating food, wine and cameraderie. It's noisy and lively and I love being part of a village that goes all out for an occasion. Usually populated by about 1,200 people, today the streets of Duras coursed with three or four times that many as residents of smaller towns all descended here.

My favorite part of the day is the brocante, or antiques sales. From my door at the cottage, I only had to walk through the clock tower to reach the first of 100 or more vendors lining most of the streets. While I did not score anything extraordinary, I did end up with a few fun finds: