# chiner dans une brocante



## Jean-Louis

This sounds so French that I doubt there is an exact equivalent in English (or, why not, in American )


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## hibouette

I heard once "bargain-hunt" (chasse aux reduction/bonnes affaires)


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## Jean-Michel Carrère

hunt around for secondhand goods


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## babyburns

It's Bargain Hunting. There's even a TV show here in the UK called Bargain Hunting where they go round car boot sales & flea markets to find stuff...


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## carolineR

the term _swap-meet_ is often used for _brocante_


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## kertek

maybe also: "to rummage for antiques"


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## kertek

> the term _swap-meet_ is often used for _brocante_


I haven't heard this in the UK, so I suspect it's US/Australian English.


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## Jean-Louis

Thank you CarolineR for swap-meet. I had never heard it but it does seem to be more American than English. I think I'll use bargain-hunting though.
Thank you all


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## zanzi

But isn't *bargain-hunting* also fine if you are looking for a fridge / a washing machine or a house or whatever else ?
 I mean not just antics/ brocante, but anything at the best price. Après tout , sa traduction littérale est "chasse à la bonne affaire" ...
So it wouldn't have the same connotation at all. 

How about (pls correct me if I am wrong) *to browse at a flea market* ?


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## babyburns

zanzi said:
			
		

> But isn't *bargain-hunting* also fine if you are looking for a fridge / a washing machine or a house or whatever else ?
> I mean not just antics/ brocante, but anything at the best price. Après tout , sa traduction littérale est "chasse à la bonne affaire" ...
> So it wouldn't have the same connotation at all.
> 
> How about (pls correct me if I am wrong) *to browse at a flea market* ?


 
I think you're wrong and you'll find that Bargain Hunting DOES relate to brocante as per the TV show of the same name. It does relate to antiques rather than house appliances...


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## babyburns

babyburns said:
			
		

> I think you're wrong and you'll find that Bargain Hunting DOES relate to brocante as per the TV show of the same name. It does relate to antiques rather than house appliances...


 
oh, and Flea Market is un marché aux puces, not a Brocante... Brocante would be a CAR BOOT sale...


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## carolineR

But isn't a CAR BOOT SALE an "à la sauvette" affair ? (i.e. an illegal one ?)
I thought it was done from a car-boot so as to drive away quicker in case police appeared ?


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## Agnès E.

I would say that marché aux Puces and brocante are very close; the difference is that brocanteurs (the sellers) are usually professionals, whereas marché aux Puces is supposed to have private sellers only.

But I'm not sure, nonetheless.


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## babyburns

carolineR said:
			
		

> But isn't a CAR BOOT SALE an "à la sauvette" affair ? (i.e. an illegal one ?)
> I thought it was done from a car-boot so as to drive away quicker in case police appeared ?


 
NO, not at all, there are monthly car boot sales around where I live, which are completely legal and it's definitely une brocante! De la meme maniere que nous organisons nos brocantes dans la rue en France, sauf qu'en Angleterre elles sont organisées dans des lieux clos (des parcs, des stades, etc...) Car boot Sale c'est une brocante!
Flea Market, c'est un marché aux puces (genre clignancourt, ici par example nous avons Spittafields market dans l'est de Londres)


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## carolineR

Agnès E. said:
			
		

> I would say that marché aux Puces and brocante are very close; the difference is that brocanteurs (the sellers) are usually professionals, whereas marché aux Puces is supposed to have private sellers only.
> But I'm not sure, nonetheless.


We disagree today, Agnes  : I would say it's just the opposite :
At the Flea Market -at Least in the Paris one - all the stalls are owned by professionals, whereas in a brocante, the sellers are both private individuals and professionals.

Thank you for your explanations, Babyburns


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## zanzi

babyburns said:
			
		

> oh, and Flea Market is un marché aux puces, not a Brocante... Brocante would be a CAR BOOT sale...


 
*Car-boot sale* only works in the UK, not in the US, Australia and South Africa. Although I lived in all those places ( AND the UK), I forgot the 3 phrases, but the generic word for those places is a flea -market ... where you can find antics, of course ! ( meeeuuu siii, on trouve de la brocante aux puces !!!) 

About the TV show : well, I don't know it but that sounds fine. But it wouldn't be the first time tv sells us BS  .


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## babyburns

Agnès E. said:
			
		

> I would say that marché aux Puces and brocante are very close; the difference is that brocanteurs (the sellers) are usually professionals, whereas marché aux Puces is supposed to have private sellers only.
> 
> But I'm not sure, nonetheless.


 
The car boot sales en Angleterre, ce sont des particuliers mais aussi des brocanteurs. Tout comme les brocantes en France, il y a toujours quelques "professionnels" parmi les amateurs, n'est-ce pas?


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## Agnès E.

Mmmm... ça me chiffonnait  quand même cette histoire. J'ai vérifié dans le Robert. Voici ce que ça donne :

BROCANTE : 
1. Commerce du brocanteur
2. Magasin du brocanteur

PUCE - MARCHÉ AUX PUCES - LES PUCES
Marché où l'on vend toutes sortes d'objets d'occasion (spécialité à Paris, porte de Saint-Ouen).


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## babyburns

Agnès E. said:
			
		

> Mmmm... ça me chiffonnait  quand même cette histoire. J'ai vérifié dans le Robert. Voici ce que ça donne :
> 
> BROCANTE :
> 1. Commerce du brocanteur
> 2. Magasin du brocanteur
> 
> PUCE - MARCHÉ AUX PUCES - LES PUCES
> Marché où l'on vend toutes sortes d'objets d'occasion (spécialité à Paris, porte de Saint-Ouen).


 
Oui, mais cela n'empêche que le mot pour brocante en Anglais c'est car boot sales, peut-etre est-ce aussi traduisible par Antiques market...


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## Agnès E.

Oh, pour cela je vous laisse juge, de nous deux c'est vous la spécialiste !  

Je tenais simplement à préciser les termes français afin que la correspondance fût faite avec les termes anglais.


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## Monsieur Moose

Let's not forget *rummage sales/garage sales/yard sales* in the U.S. This is where residents put unwanted home items and clothing for sale in the front yard, or driveway . *Bargin hunting* applies here as well.


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## carolineR

En Français, on parle aussi de *vide-grenier*


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## Pipester

For what it's worth:

"Swap meet" is uncommon in the U.S.  It's generally only used for a sale of only one kind of thing, e.g. auto parts, ham radio equipment.

"Car boot sale" is never used, since for us the "boot" of a car is the "trunk." (And a trunk sale is something else entirely.)

The phenomenon of "garage sales" has generalized to "yard sales" (so that even folks who don't have a garage can have one.)  These are sometimes large affairs, billed as "multi-family yard sales." Churches and such hold fund-raising yard sales -- the equivalent, I think, of the British "jumble sale."

There are also antique shows, which also occur in the UK, I think.

None of these are the same as a brocante, of course.  I'm not sure how you could get that concept across to an American.  Most of us would respond, "huh?" to "car boot sale."

Paul


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## Jean-Louis

Merci pour toute cette discussion. La difficulté demeure de trouver un équivalent à l'expression tout entière. Un objet "chiné dans une brocante" est-ce "something bargain-hunted at a car boot sale" par exemple ?
Dans swap-meet il y a l'idée d'échange, de troc, quoiqu'il semble que le sens se soit élargi.
Si je dis "je l'ai chiné..." dois-je traduire 
I bought it at a car boot sale
I found it
I bargained for it
ou encore autre chose ?
Puisque le sujet semble avoir suscité de l'intérêt je n'ai pas trop de scrupules à y revenir.


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## Monsieur Moose

I got *a deal* at an antique sale.


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## zanzi

babyburns said:
			
		

> Oui, mais cela n'empêche que le mot pour brocante en Anglais c'est car boot sales, peut-etre est-ce aussi traduisible par Antiques market...


 
je trouve vraiment que tu t'accroches à quelque chose qui n'est pas si évident que cela à prouver (à part que tu en as la conviction absolue, de toute évidence).

Mais pour moi la différence est nulle dans ce cas là : quand les gars de ton quartier amènent leur voiture sur le parking du stade ou sur la place de l'école pour vendre leurs trucs, ils amènent plus souvent du junk ( cassettes vidéos, cadres photo, jouets d'enfants, vaisselle et vieilles fringues) que des antiquités de prix ... si, non ??
Alors dans ce cas-là, ton car boot serait plutôt des puces ... si, non ?? 

Enfin, je te laisse car je retourne à mes moutons (du TAF !!) au lieu de me creuser la  tête sur ce sujet là !!!!!!!!!!!!! 

C'est sympa les car-boot sales, au fait ! ils ont pas ça, en Afrique du Sud.


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## zanzi

carolineR said:
			
		

> En Français, on parle aussi de *vide-grenier*


 
Aaaahh vouiiii tu as raison !! diable, le sujet s'étoffe de minute en minute !


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## Pipester

Jean-Louis said:
			
		

> Si je dis "je l'ai chiné..." dois-je traduire
> I bought it at a car boot sale
> I found it
> I bargained for it
> ou encore autre chose ?


 
I think "I scored it at a [flea market]" gets it pretty well. "I found it..." is also used and is less slangy.

The problem is that both of these must be used transitively. I can't think of a good phrase for "chiner dans une brocante."

Paul


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## zanzi

How about :

*It's a bargain, I got it second-hand in a yard (jumble) sale !*

Only trying


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## Monsieur Moose

On peut entendre les gens au Wisconsin et ailleurs aux Etas-Unis qui disent.  *Let's go rummage sale-ing today!* (comme un verbe)


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## dicomec

Chiner dans une brocante (to me) means to bargain hunt in secondhand stores, but that could include flea markets as well. There is a TV program called « Tous à la brocante » which always covers collectors, collectibles, unusual objects as well as an appraiser who evaluates one or two things, and always someone who had just about furnished the entire home with bargains found at flea markets and second hand stores. I watch it all the time, plus the hostess is quite beautiful.


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## Wodwo

dicomec said:


> Chiner dans une brocante (to me) means to bargain hunt in secondhand stores, but that could include flea markets as well.D



In the old days I would have said at once that a 'brocante' was a 'junk shop' or 'junk stall', but as I was writing this I realized that they no longer exist here in the UK, where their place has been taken pretty much entirely by charity shops. In fact, these days I would think a charity shop was a pretty good equivalent of a 'brocante', except for the charity element, so it would depend on what was important about the place in question, the quality of the goods or its underlying rationale. 'Chiner dans une brocante' - hunt around in a charity shop, or a secondhand/junk shop, if the speaker is pre-1990 I'd say. 'Je l'ai chiné...' I found/got it in a charity shop/secondhand shop.


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## Wodwo

carolineR said:


> the term _swap-meet_ is often used for _brocante_



This may well be true, but I've never come across it at all, let alone often. Is it used in France?


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## dicomec

Wodwo said:


> This may well be true, but I've never come across it at all, let alone often. Is it used in France?


Here in the US charity shops (called thrift shops) now dominate the junk store market too. I usually think of brocante more as "antique/collectible" shops. That is interesting but affordable objects and affordable antiques; not pricless objets d'art. I'm not authorized to enter that sort of antique store. Just ask my wife. Flea markets abound, and in our present economy, thrift stores abound as well; not all of them are exactly charities.  Over the past five or six years Goodwill Industries is possibly the fastest growing business we have over here.
Then we have White Elephant Sales by church organizations, etc. which I believe you call jumble sales or something like that.
As to "charity shops", St. Vincent de Paul is my favorite. Il ne faut pas y chiner. Invalides moins 10%, anciens combattants moins 10%,retraités moins encore 10%, soldes tous les jours, 10 à 50%. Et pour ceux qui n'ont pas un rond dans la poche, des vêtements, etc. gratuits. L'esprit de St. Vincent de Paul vive toujours !


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## Squiggle

But what about vide greniers?

I've always used "vide grenier" for "car boot" because (being a fan of both) they seem to be exactly the same thing - primarily individuals selling off their own stuff they no longer want at an event usually held in a field or car park etc. Then you have "marché aux puces" for "flea market", usually a more regular or permanent evet while the "brocante" is more of a professional level, although I would suggest vintage or cutsey rather than full-blown antique. 
You often get brocanteurs at vide greniers, just like you get professionals at car boot sales. Where I live the brocanteurs have to pay twice as much as private individuals for a space at a vide grenier.


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