Grand May 1st Car Boot Sale in Le Barcarès

A traditional car boot sale facing the Mediterranean

The Grand May 1^st Car Boot Sale in Le Barcarès is part of the national tradition of bargain-hunting events held on Labour Day and the lily-of-the-valley festival. In France, nearly 50,000 flea markets and car boot sales are organised each year, and 1 May alone accounts for several hundred of them, including the one in Le Barcarès, one of the largest on the Catalan coast. Organised by the town council, the car boot sale takes place in the streets and squares of the resort centre. Private and semi-professional exhibitors offer clothes, shoes, toys, games, books, comics, records, crockery, trinkets, light fixtures, small furniture, outdoor gear and collectibles. The event symbolically marks the start of the summer season and draws both town residents and the first holidaymakers and second-home owners reopening their apartments by the sea.

Le Barcarès, an emblematic resort of the Catalan coast

Le Barcarès is a commune in northern Pyrénées-Orientales, straddling the Mediterranean Sea and the Leucate lagoon, giving it the unique character of a port-lagoon town typical of the Catalan coast. The town has nearly 5,500 year-round residents and sees its population multiply tenfold in summer. Born with the urbanisation of the Languedoc coast in the 1960s, the resort is especially famous for its ship in the sand, the Lydia, a former liner deliberately grounded on the beach in 1967 and now the emblem of Le Barcarès. Its fine sandy beaches, marina, many campsites and packed events calendar make it one of the flagship resorts of the Roussillon coast. The Grand May 1^st Car Boot Sale keeps the town's commercial and cultural life vibrant and contributes to its festive identity.