Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

After driving for several hours, the truck drove into the city of Kassel, more than 200 kilometers away from Leipzig. Then the three people quickly found a hotel open to such intercontinental truck drivers and stayed there.

Early the next morning, they continued to drive across the border between Germany and France, and then stopped at Saint-Menourde in the Marne department of the Champagne-Ardennes region for lunch and preparation for a rest. a while.

"I need to rest here for two hours before setting off." After returning to the parking lot, Old Pierce said to Liang En and the others, because for him, only taking a good rest now can avoid the possible dangers caused by fatigue driving.

After watching old Pierce turn around and go to the rest area attached to the parking lot for a lunch break, Liang En and Pierce decided to go strolling around the streets of the town to kill the two hours.

The parking lot is located outside the town of St. Menulde, so if Liang En and the others want to go around, they need to walk a few hundred meters along a trail.

Along the way, they saw some small trees and large vineyards on both sides of the road. At the end of the road, some old country houses with red tiles and white walls were hidden in the shade.

These poetic pastoral scenery and rich French-style scenery made the two of them feel the harmony between people and nature in the French village, which is the unique charm of the French countryside.

"It's really nice, especially the sunshine and the surrounding vineyards." Pierce said looking at the surrounding scenery.

Unlike the most common British countryside, which consists of stretches of grassland with interspersed woods, dotted with farmhouses, and scattered livestock on the grass, the villages here seem a lot more lively.

After all, Britain's latitude is further north, so it is easier to develop animal husbandry than planting. However, with the open grassland used for raising cattle and sheep coupled with the rainy weather common in the British Isles, it is difficult not to give people a feeling of loneliness.

Unlike ordinary agricultural towns, St. Menoulde has developed a tourism industry. Therefore, in addition to local residents in the town, you can also see many tourists taking photos everywhere with cameras or mobile phones.

Because today is Sunday, the weekly free market in the town is also open. This market is located in an open space on the edge of the town, and the stalls are cars.

Several of the commercial vehicles look more professional. When the carriage is opened from the side, it reveals a simple but by no means crude shop. However, most of them are just a piece of cloth spread on or beside the vehicle. Some even simply put the Cargo is stuffed into the trunk.

This market is free for locals, but there is a fee for foreigners. Fortunately, it's not expensive. Foreigners only need 10 euros per person to go in and do whatever they want. But if you want to sell things here, you will be charged 10 euros per stall.

To put it bluntly, this market has the same nature as going to the market during holidays in Chinese villages. Therefore, the items sold in these stores are also very mixed, which can be said to cover all aspects.

"There are similar markets around London. At first, everyone hoped to sell some second-hand goods that they could not use, or some things they produced themselves, but later various professional and semi-professional businessmen came to join in the fun. "

While eating slices of fresh French bread with homemade jam that he just bought, Pierce introduced to Liang En, "Next time we have free time, we can go to those weekend markets around London."

Perhaps because this place usually has a lot of tourists, the shops here sell a much wider range of things than a normal rural weekend market.

In addition to those selling tools, second-hand furniture and farm tools, and those selling some fruits and vegetables grown in the fields, they also saw many people selling various small decorations.

For example, Liang En now found an old artificial velvet red cloth spread on a light folding table next to a car, and on top of the red cloth were placed various things that looked a bit old.

Pierce quickly fell in love with a wooden cigarette box with brass edges on the stall, and after several rounds of haggling, he bought it for 25 euros.

In fact, this box belongs to the kind of cigarette box that was relatively common in the early 20th century. However, unlike ordinary boxes, this box has some bas-reliefs carved on it.

"Look at this. What is carved on it is a frontline trench position, and the year 1918 is written next to it. So this is probably something left by soldiers on the battlefield of World War I." Pierce said, pointing to the pattern on the box.

Liang En spent more than 70 euros to buy a silver mug, which was considered a small leak. This cup is small on the body and large on the bottom. The story of the three heroes of Yang Chi fighting Lu Bu is hammered on the top, and an oriental dragon-shaped handle is welded to one side of the cup.

Obviously, this combination is similar to wearing a suit and a melon cap, and there is something obviously wrong with it. So the stall owner sold this thing to Liang En at the price of modern silver crafts.

But in fact, this thing is a silverware for export made by craftsmen at some foreign trade ports in the south during the late Qing Dynasty. The biggest feature of this kind of silverware is that the style is very consistent with Western eating and living habits, but the decoration is full of Chinese characteristics.

"How much do you think this thing is worth?" After leaving the shop, Pierce asked excitedly after learning the true identity of the silverware.

"300~350 euros, you have to meet someone you like." Liang En shrugged and said, "After all, there were too many exports of this type of stuff back then, and the quality of this kind of completely commercialized stuff was just that, so selling it Don’t pay too high a price.”

What he didn't say was that he found that not a single card was revealed in this silver cup, which proved from the side that the value of this cup was not very high.

Fortunately, this cup looks very clean, and Liang En is not short of money now. So he planned to clean and disinfect the cup when he went back and keep it for himself.

"It's pretty good. You can use this cup in the bar we often go to." Pierce said after hearing Liang En's plan.

For British people, especially British men, the pub is a very common social occasion. In this case, many people tend to spend money in fixed bars.

And if you are a regular customer, it is very common to bring your own wine glass to the bar.

The area of ​​this market is not large, so Liang En and the two of them quickly visited almost all of the market.

To be honest, these shops are not without fakes. But at least it's much better than the situation in those antique markets in China where you stand there with your mouth open and your mouth shut, but in fact the oldest thing in the whole shop is the red cloth on the floor.

But when they were about to leave here and go shopping elsewhere, a businessman who had just opened a stall at the door suddenly attracted Liang En's attention.

The items displayed by this stall owner are like a grocery store, with silverware, porcelain, woodware, small furniture, jewelry, etc. completely filling the entire cloth.

The reason why Liang En was attracted here was because among the old-fashioned European porcelain and silverware that looked a little dirty, there was an obviously Chinese-style bottle standing there.