Availles-en-Châtellerault Threshing Festival Flea Market

A festival honouring the agricultural world

Availles-en-Châtellerault is a commune of some 1,900 inhabitants northeast of Poitiers, in Grand Châtellerault intercommunal area, along the Vienne river. Each late August, the village holds its Threshing Festival — an emblematic event paying tribute to old farming traditions. Combining vintage threshing demos and flea market, it draws families from Châtellerault, Poitiers and beyond.

Threshing: living heritage

Threshing — separating grain from straw after harvest — was once a major social and farming moment in the countryside. Until the 1960s-70s, farmers grouped in teams using mechanical threshers pulled by tractors or steam locomobiles. Availles's Threshing Festival perpetuates this tradition with restored vintage farm machines run by passionate collectors. A true living history lesson.

At the flea market

• Private bric-a-brac, rural everyday objects
• Old tools and farm equipment
• Farm furniture, benches, chests, wardrobes
• Enamel crockery, old jugs
• Farming books, old magazines
• Old toys, bikes, spare parts
• Vintage clothes and accessories
• Knick-knacks, paintings, decor

A multi-dimensional event

Far more than a flea market: threshing demos with thresher and locomobile, vintage tractor show, old car parades, local artisans and producers, country meal, kids' activities. Full immersion in rural yesteryear. Families come for the brocante and this moving historical reenactment.

Availles and Grand Châtellerault

North of Poitiers along the Vienne, minutes from Châtellerault. Scattered rural housing, farmland, river banks. Part of Grand Châtellerault (47 communes). Near Naintré, Cenon-sur-Vienne, Châtellerault with its industrial heritage, and Futuroscope 15 km away.