From Damvix's scarecrow car boot sale to the antiques market below Angers castle, twelve bargain-hunting stops in Pays de la Loire on August 1-2.
The first weekend of August tips Pays de la Loire fully into summer mode. In Anjou, the first Sunday of the month brings back the big monthly markets of Angers and Montreuil-Bellay. In Vendée and Sarthe, villages take over, with annual editions that come round only once a year. Our pick of the weekend is the Damvix scarecrow car boot sale: hunting for bargains along the canals of the Marais Poitevin while the village fills up with straw figures is hard to turn down.
Maine-et-Loire concentrates the professional flea markets, with two of them running side by side in Angers on Sunday morning. Sarthe, quiet the rest of the year, holds both its summer flea markets on the same day. Loire-Atlantique bets on Saturday in Vertou, before a waterside Sunday in Sainte-Reine-de-Bretagne. Vendée, meanwhile, runs through every possible format, from marshland villages to the Île d'Yeu. Twelve dates, department by department.
Scarecrow Car Boot Sale — Damvix (85)
Every first Sunday of August, Damvix fills up with straw figures. The scarecrow car boot sale is one of the highlights of the Festival des Épouvantails, and the 2026 edition falls on Sunday, August 2, in the village centre.
Sellers and craftspeople set up in the heart of the Venise Verte, among canals and pollarded ash trees. Entertainment and music run alongside the stalls, which is a change from the usual car-park sale. The Marais Poitevin scenery does half the work: you come for the stalls and stay for the village. A family format, best taken slowly.
Antiques and Fine Flea Market at the Castle — Angers (49)
First Sunday of the month, so Rue Toussaint and the surrounding streets host this market on August 2, 2026. Run by Muller Brocante, the Angers castle antiques market gathers around thirty vetted professionals.
Antiques dealers and traders show antique furniture, collectors' pieces, jewellery, books and curiosities. The vetting shows: this sits closer to an antiques fair than a general clear-out. The setting counts too, at the foot of the medieval castle. A date for anyone chasing a specific piece rather than a random lot.
Town Centre Flea Market — Angers (49)
That same Sunday, August 2, a few streets away, the Angers town centre flea market takes over Place Saint-Éloi, Place Kennedy and the adjoining streets. Around a hundred vendors, professionals and private sellers mixed together.
Scale changes everything here. Where the castle market plays selectivity, this one plays volume. Both can be covered in the same morning, on foot, in the middle of this city of art and history. Castle and cathedral stand a short walk away, turning the outing into an urban stroll. Allow time: two markets in one go fills a whole morning.
Vertou Basket Car Boot Sale — Vertou (44)
On Saturday, August 1, 2026, the Vertou Basket club runs its 24th edition on the Sèvre et Maine car park, at 1 Rue Sèvre et Maine. Open from 8:30am to 6pm: a full day, which stays rare for a club-run sale.
Twenty-four editions is enough to fix a date in the calendar of bargain hunters south of the Loire. The principle is straightforward: takings fund the club's sporting activities, and the town gains a summer event. It is also one of the few large Saturday dates this weekend, worth catching before everything shifts to Sunday.
Summer Flea Market — Gréez-sur-Roc (72)
Sarthe offers only two dates this weekend, and both land on Sunday, August 2. The first takes place on Impasse des Grands Champs in Gréez-sur-Roc: the summer flea market returns as it does every August, from 8am to 6pm.
An open-air market, with no strict vetting and no ceremony. Stalls line up old crockery, clothes, books and toys — the village car boot sale register, in a town that lives by its summer events. Ten hours of opening leave room to browse without rushing, which morning-only formats never allow.
Jupilles Flea Market (72)
The second Sarthe date is held in Jupilles, a village sitting at the edge of the Bercé forest. The Jupilles flea market also runs on Sunday, August 2, 2026, from 8am to 6pm, in the open air.
Furniture, crockery and second-hand goods fill the stalls. The interest lies as much in the location as in the stands: the forest starts at the edge of the village, and the market pairs easily with an afternoon walk under the trees. Two Sarthe flea markets on the same day, in two different villages — pick according to your route.
Brocante à Cœur — Montreuil-Bellay (49)
A third Anjou date on this first Sunday: Brocante à Cœur in Montreuil-Bellay, on August 2, 2026. This medieval town on the banks of the Thouet ranks among the most striking in Anjou, castle and ramparts included.
The monthly market offers second-hand goods, antiques and bric-a-brac, in a markedly calmer atmosphere than Angers. It works as a counterpoint to the two markets in the county town: fewer vendors, more time to talk to them. The medieval setting alone justifies the trip south.
Summer Flea Market — Sallertaine (85)
On Sunday, August 2, 2026, the village of Sallertaine hosts its summer flea market. Sallertaine is among the most recognisable villages of the Vendée's Marais Breton, a short distance from the coast.
Professionals and private sellers set up together in the middle of the village. The mix produces a varied market, where antique furniture sits next to a box of trinkets. In peak season, local hunters and holidaymakers staying on the coast cross paths in the same aisles. The atmosphere gains from it, prices slightly less so. An annual date, not to be confused with the area's monthly markets.
August Car Boot Sale — Mareuil-sur-Lay-Dissais (85)
On Saturday, August 1, 2026, Mareuil-sur-Lay-Dissais holds its summer car boot sale. The village sits halfway between La Roche-sur-Yon and the coast, in the middle of the Fiefs Vendéens vineyards.
An ideal position to catch two audiences: southern Vendée regulars and holidaymakers heading back from the beaches. The date is keenly awaited locally, at the height of the tourist season. Along with Vertou, it is one of only two real Saturday options this weekend — useful when Sunday is already taken by a monthly market.
Cadouère Car Boot Sale — Île d'Yeu (85)
Hunting for bargains on an island changes the equation. The Encore M'Yeu A Cadouère association runs its summer car boot sale on the first Sunday of August, meaning August 2 for the 2026 edition.
The event spreads across the hamlets of Cadouère, Ker Mercier and Château Gaillard. It is a village sale before it is a tourist outing, and that shows in the stalls as much as in the prices. The boat timetable frames the day and puts off anyone in a hurry. Those who make the crossing find a rare kind of date, on an island scale.
L'Herberie Car Boot Sale — Ombrée-d'Anjou (49)
The hamlet of L'Herberie hosts its annual car boot sale on Sunday, August 2, 2026. We are in the north-west of Maine-et-Loire here, on the edge of Brittany and Mayenne.
A hamlet sale in the strict sense: small, local, run by and for residents. The Haut-Anjou has kept this tradition of small rural gatherings, where you know half the sellers by name. Nothing like the professional markets of Angers, an hour away. That contrast is exactly what makes the detour worthwhile.
Brochet Reinois Car Boot Sale — Sainte-Reine-de-Bretagne (44)
The Brochet Reinois, a local angling association, closes its summer season on Sunday, August 2, 2026. After a first edition in July, this car boot sale returns to the Trou à Tenau, in northern Loire-Atlantique.
Pitches go for 12 euros for a 5-by-5-metre space, a clear rate for sellers still weighing it up. The setting breaks with the usual village squares: you browse at the water's edge, surrounded by greenery. An event run by a fishing club stays uncommon in the Loire region's car boot landscape.
Worth noting
Saturday, August 1 stays quiet: Vertou and Mareuil-sur-Lay carry most of it. Sunday, August 2 starts everything at once — first Sunday of the month in Anjou, summer flea markets in Sarthe and Vendée. To compare with other regions, head to our full weekend agenda.
