As I sit home, I closely watch the current weather in Amiens.

Did I make the right decision?
Did I not?

France Météo reports lower than normal temperatures, and 2 fronts have moved through Picardie to date, with another stronger one to follow tonight and Sunday.

Here’s their latest hourly forecast for (tomorrow) Sunday.

Wind speeds are shown here but not the fact that there will be gusts up to 65km/hr

This is comfort in my sadness of missing this event.

à bientôt

Well today was a sad day for me.

Our flight out of here was looking very grim. And the weather in France was also. TF1, the french television station, has excellent weather forecasts twice a day from France Météo. I tuned in online and they were forecasting constant rain in Picardie starting Friday and carrying on through next week.

What to do.
What to do.

Do we push and go to London only to have wet weather that will definitely effect the vendors at the Brocante? Or cancel now and stay home for a couple more days? Wind was also forecast over the weekend and that just makes it even worse. The plastic that the vendors use to cover their wares wreaks havoc in the wind and increases the risk of damaging their items on display.

Sure enough, if I pushed and we travelled tonight the weather would take a downturn. Just my luck. When we were living there, if rain was forecast I’d still get up and go and make an attempt at one or two. It’s so much easier when you’re living there as there’s always the next weekend. This basically would have been my one opportunity for this year.

I suppose you can already tell by the tense in the previous sentence, that I made the decision not to go. My Eurostar tickets were non-refundable but I was able to cancel my SNCF portion of my train tickets from Calais to Amiens and get a refund. The hotel also did not have a cancellation penalty. So I have to consider myself lucky that I was batting 2 out of 3 for refunds. Though the Eurostar was equal in price to the other two.

Eh bien.
C’est la vie d’une chineuse!

After all these months of waiting, there are only 6 more days until the Grand Brocante of Amiens.

We are hoping to get on the flight on Wednesday night.
We will arrive in the UK on Thursday afternoon.

It’s now a question of the weather…
In the 13 years in France we had a saying “you can’t wait for the weather”.
If you did, you’d never do anything!
The weather changes so quickly and forecasts are rarely accurate until 24-48 hours in advance.

It’s not worth going if it’s going to be raining. Not only is it unpleasant, but all the vendors cover their items with plastic and this slows down the hunt. Showers well that’s another thing as it rains on and off and the plastic covers go on and off. Sure, there would be less crowds in the rain, and maybe better bargains as the vendors pay for their spots months in advance and they are non-refundable… forcing them to come in all weather conditions. Some vendors hold back their “good stuff” when it’s raining as they don’t want it damaged.

click here to get the France Météo weather forecast.

My train is saturday and I need to decide if I am going or not by Friday night.
At the moment it’s a push.
Will keep you all posted…