Vide-Grenier de Jessains

The Vide-Grenier de Jessains: a rural event in the heart of the Der champenois

The village of Jessains (10140) organizes its annual car boot sale every year, a friendly and popular event in this commune in the wet Champagne region. Located in the north-east of the Aube department, Jessains is a preserved rural village whose car boot sale is one of the highlights of local community life.

Jessains, village of the wet Champagne region

Jessains is a small commune of about 200 inhabitants, nestled in the wet Champagne region of the Aube. This territory, corresponding to the former Der region, is distinguished from the chalky Champagne plain by its bocage meadows, its ponds, its oak and ash forests and its villages with characteristic half-timbered houses. This traditional vernacular architecture, with its half-timbered houses whose infills are filled with clay, constitutes an exceptional and recognized built heritage.

A few kilometers to the north is the lake of Der-Chantecoq, one of the largest artificial lakes in Europe with its 4,800 hectares of water. Created in the 1970s to regulate the floods of the Marne and the Seine, this lake is home to large numbers of migratory birds — particularly common cranes, of which tens of thousands transit every autumn — and is a major natural site in eastern France.

A car boot sale in the tradition of the Der

The Jessains car boot sale is part of the tradition of rural festivals in the Der champenois. The exhibitors, mainly individuals from the village and neighboring communes in the north-east of the Aube — Brienne-le-Château, Brienne-la-Vieille, Dienville, Radonvilliers — offer an authentic selection of objects from their attics and cellars: rural furniture, crockery and earthenware, farm tools, clothes and household linen, books and magazines, trinkets and souvenirs.

Sometimes, in these car boot sales in the wet Champagne region, one can find objects related to local architecture: characteristic tiles, old ironwork, carpentry elements from half-timbered houses. These pieces, witnesses to rural life in the Der, arouse the interest of heritage enthusiasts and collectors of regional objects.

The Der champenois, between nature and memory

The Der region is a territory steeped in history and memory. The creation of the lake of Der-Chantecoq in the 1970s led to the submersion of three villages — Chantecoq, Champaubert-aux-Bois and Nuisement-aux-Bois — whose bell towers sometimes emerge from the water during periods of low water, poignant images recalling this sacrifice made for the control of the Parisian rivers' floods.

The ecomuseum of the Maison du Der in Sainte-Marie-du-Lac-Nuisement retraces the history of this territory submerged under water and preserves the memory of its inhabitants. The trail of the submerged villages allows walkers to walk along the banks of the lake, discovering the submerged remains and the history of this unique territory.

Practical information

The car boot sale is held annually in Jessains (10140). Entry is free for visitors. The village is accessible from Brienne-le-Château via departmental roads. For precise dates and registration details, contact the town hall of Jessains or the organizers.