Rummage around for a bargain

Last year’s sprawling antiques fair in the Nord department’s capital, the Lille Braderie, was cancelled over safety concerns following the Nice terror attacks but the popular event is back, bigger and better, on September 2-3 this year.

Hundreds of thousands of shoppers will tread the city’s streets, each packed with sellers both amateur and professional, all purveying either unwanted tat or genuine antiquarian items. After a pit stop for the essential braderie meal of moules-frites (500 tonnes of mussels will be eaten – see the shell piles grow as the weekend progresses) the search for affaires (good deals) begins again. Want to haggle? Il faut négocier.

The word braderie comes from brader, meaning to sell off cheaply – a braderie was an annual fair in Flemish towns, where certain articles (i.e used clothes) were sold off at below-normal prices.

But the etymology goes deeper. In the 15th century in Lille, some sellers began to feed customers by cooking up poultry. Rôtir (to roast) was braden in Flemish, hence the use of braden in association with the market.
As for ways that trawling for bargainous purchases can be expressed in French, here are some useful phrases:

Farfouiller is a versatile verb meaning to rummage around, have a nose, poke or fish around. Just add dans if you are poking around in something such as a bag.

Un fureteur is a browser (as in web browser) but can also refer to someone having a nose around – it can also mean a ‘nosy parker’.

Using an animal reference, just as we might use ‘to ferret around’ in English, the French use another mammal, the weasel (une fouine) to describe a snoop. The verb to describe the act of sticking one’s nose in is fouiner.

A slightly less insulting, catch-all verb in relation to those who enjoy a spot of antiquing is chiner – which makes you a chineur/chineuse if you are a bargain hunter. Cheap as frites, viewers!