Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 21 Weekend Country Fair
After driving for several hours, the truck drove into the city of Kassel, more than 200 kilometers away from Leipzig.Then the three of them quickly found a hotel open to drivers of such intercontinental trucks to live in.

In the early morning of the second day, they continued to drive across the border between Germany and France, and then stopped at Saint-Mernould in the Marne department of the Champagne-Ardenne region at noon to have lunch and prepare for a rest for a while.

"I need to rest here for two hours before I can start." After returning to the parking lot, Old Pierce said to Liang En and the others, because for him, only by taking a good rest now can he avoid the possible danger caused by fatigued 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 shopping in the streets of the town to pass the two hours.

The parking lot was located outside the small town of Saint-Mernould, so Liang En and the others had to walk a few hundred meters along a trail if they wanted to go around.

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

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

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

Unlike the most common stretches of grassland interspersed with woods in the UK, as well as dotted farmhouses and scattered livestock on the grass, this empty rural scene, the villages here are much more lively.

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

Unlike ordinary agricultural towns, Saint-Mernould has developed a tourism industry.Therefore, in addition to the local residents in the small town, you can also see a lot of tourists with cameras or mobile phones taking pictures everywhere.

Because today is Sunday, the weekly free market in the town is also open.The market is located in a vacant lot on the edge of the town, and the stalls are just cars.

Several of the commercial vehicles look more professional. When the compartment is opened from the side, it is a simple but not shabby shop, but most of them are just a piece of cloth spread on the vehicle or beside the vehicle. Cargo stuffed into the trunk.

This market is free for locals and charges for foreigners.Fortunately, the fee is not expensive, each person from other places only needs 10 cents of euros to go in and do activities at will.It's just that if you want to sell something here, you will charge 10 euros for a booth.

To put it bluntly, this market is of the same nature as going to the market during the holidays in Huaxia villages.Therefore, the things sold in these stores are also very messy, which can be said to cover all aspects.

"There are similar fairs around London. At the beginning, everyone hoped to sell some second-hand goods that they didn't need, or some things they produced themselves, but later all kinds of professional and semi-professional businessmen came to join in the fun. "

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

Maybe because there are usually more tourists in this place, the shops here sell a lot more things than the normal country weekend market.

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

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

Pierce quickly fell in love with a wooden cigarette box with a brass edge on the stand, and after a few rounds of haggling, he won it for 25 euros.

In fact, this box belongs to the common cigarette box in the early 20th century, but it is different from ordinary boxes in that there are some bas-reliefs carved by people on this box.

"Look at this, it's engraved with a front-line trench position, and 1918 is written next to it. So this is probably something left by a soldier on a battlefield in World War I." Pierce said, pointing to the pattern on the box.

And Liang En spent more than 70 Euros to buy a mug made of silver, which was a small mistake.The cup has a small body and a large bottom, with the upper part hammered and chiseled, and one side of the cup body is welded with an oriental dragon-shaped handle.

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

But in fact, this thing is an export silverware made by craftsmen in some foreign trade ports in the south in the late Qing Dynasty.The biggest feature of this kind of silverware is that the style is very in line 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 kind of thing back then, and the quality of this kind of completely commercialized thing is just that, so selling Not too high a price."

And what he didn't say was that he found that the silver cup didn't explode a single card, which proved from the side that the value of this cup is not very high.

Fortunately, this cup looks very clean, and Liang En is not short of money now.So he planned to wash and disinfect the cup after going back and keep it for his own use.

"It's not bad. 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, pubs are a very common social occasion.In this case, many people tend to spend in fixed bars.

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

The size of this market is not too big, so Liang En and the others quickly walked around the market.

Seriously, these bunks are not without fakes on them.But at least it is much better than the situation in those antique markets in Huaxia where you open your mouth and stand welding, shut your mouth and pull out ten thousand, but in fact the oldest thing in the entire bunk is the red cloth on the floor.

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

What the stall owner put out was like a grocery store, with silverware, porcelain, woodware, small furniture, and jewelry completely filling the entire cloth.

The reason why Liang En was attracted was because among the old European porcelain and silverware that looked a little dirty, there was a bottle with an obvious Chinese style.

(End of this chapter)