POITE Spring Car Boot Sale in Villelongue-de-la-Salanque

A community car boot sale in the heart of the Salanque

The spring car boot sale in Villelongue-de-la-Salanque is one of the highlights of the season for bargain hunters in the area. Organised by the POITE association, it runs for a full day, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., at the Espace Joffre, on Place Maréchal Joffre. Private and semi-professional exhibitors present clothes, toys, books, crockery, trinkets, records, tools and small furniture, in a friendly atmosphere where families meet to browse among neighbours. The drinks stand and food service run by the association let visitors extend their morning between finds.

Villelongue-de-la-Salanque, a Catalan village of the Roussillon plain

Villelongue-de-la-Salanque is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales located just 8 kilometres north-east of Perpignan, in the Salanque plain, between Sainte-Marie-la-Mer and Bompas. The village's origins go back to the Middle Ages, when it was called Villa Longa, to which the suffix "de la Salanque" was added from the 14th century, and definitively in the 17th. The commune grew in a spiral around its church before being fortified in the 14th century. Successively held by the kings of Majorca, the kings of Aragon and then the kingdom of France, it was long dominated by the d'Oms family, its historic lords. Today, Villelongue is famous for its artichokes, its emblematic agricultural speciality, and has a strong community life of which this car boot sale is one of the highlights.