After driving for a few hours, the truck entered Kassel City, more than 200 kilometers from Leipzig. The three of them quickly found an inn open to intercontinental truck drivers and settled down.
The next day, they continued driving, crossing the border between Germany and France, and stopped for lunch and a break in Saint Manuel in the Mane Province of Champagne-Ardenne Region.
"I need to rest here for two hours before I can set off." After returning to the car park, Old Pierce told Leonard and others, because for him, only now can he take a good rest to avoid the dangers that might arise from fatigue driving.
Watching Old Pierce turn around and go to the attached rest area in the parking lot for a lunch break, Leonard and Pierce decided to take a walk on the streets of the town to pass the time during these two hours.
The parking lot was outside the small town of Saint Manuel, so Leonard and others had to walk along a footpath for several hundred meters to take a stroll.
Along the way, they saw both sides of the road lined with not-so-tall trees and vast vineyards. At the end of the road, some old-style country houses with red roofs and white walls were nestled in green shade.
This picturesque rural scenery and the rich French atmosphere allowed the two of them to feel the harmony between humans and nature in the French village, which can be considered the unique charm of the French countryside.
"Indeed very nice, especially the sunshine and the surrounding vineyards." Pierce said, looking at the surrounding scenery.
Unlike the vast countryside of the British Isles, with its large swaths of grassland, interspersed with woodlands and speckled farmhouses and scattered livestock, the villages here seemed much more lively.
After all, the United Kingdom is located further north, making it easier to develop animal husbandry than agriculture. However, those pastures for raising cattle and sheep, coupled with the cloudy and rainy weather common to the British Isles, can hardly avoid giving people a feeling of loneliness.
Unlike ordinary agricultural towns, Saint Manuel has developed the tourism industry. Therefore, in addition to the locals, there were also scattered tourists taking photos with cameras or mobile phones.
Since today was Sunday, the weekly open-air market of the small town was also open. The market was located on a vacant lot on the edge of the town, and the booths were cars.
Some RVs looked more professional, with the carriage opening from the side into a simple yet not shabby shop, but most of the goods were spread on the car or a piece of cloth by the side of the vehicle, and some people even stuffed the goods into the trunk.
The market is free for locals, while there is a small fee for outsiders. Fortunately, the cost was not expensive, so the outsiders only had to pay 10 Euro cents to enter and move around freely. However, if they wanted to sell something there, each booth would charge 10 Euros.
In short, this market was similar to the gatherings in the Chinese countryside during holidays. As a result, the shops sold a wide variety of things.
"There are similar markets around London, at first people wanted to sell some second-hand goods they no longer needed, or some things they produced themselves, but later various professional and semi-professional businessmen would come to the market as well." Pierce introduced to Leonard while eating a freshly-baked French bread slice spread with homemade jam, "Next time we have some free time, we can go to the weekend markets around London."
Possibly because this place usually had more tourists, the variety of goods sold in these shops was much more than that of ordinary rural weekend markets.
In addition to those selling tools, selling second-hand furniture and agricultural tools, and selling self-produced vegetables and fruits from their fields, they also saw many people selling various small decorative items.
For example, Leonard now noticed a lightweight folding table beside a car covered with an old artificial velvet red cloth, and on the red cloth were various items that seemed to have a bit of age.
Pierce quickly took a liking to a wooden cigarette box with brass edges on the table and, after a few rounds of price negotiation, got it for 25 Euros.
In fact, this box belongs to a more common type of cigarette case from the early 20th century, but unlike ordinary cases, this one has some shallow bas-reliefs carved by people.
"Take a look at this, it's carved with a front-line trench position on it, and next to it is written 1918. So this is likely something left behind by a soldier on a World War I battlefield," Pierce said, pointing to the pattern on the box.
On the other hand, Leonard spent more than 70 Euros on a silver stein, which was considered a small find. The cup is small at the top and large at the bottom, with the story of three British battles against Lü Bu hammered and chiseled on the top, and an Eastern dragon-shaped handle welded to one side of the cup body.
Obviously, this combination is similar to wearing a suit with a melon cap, with some obvious weirdness. So the stall owner sold it to Leonard at the price of modern silverware.
But in reality, this item was manufactured by craftsmen in some southland foreign trade ports in the late Qing Dynasty for export. This silverware's main feature is its style, which is very much in line with Western dining habits, but it is full of Chinese characteristics in its decoration.
"How much do you think this is worth?" After leaving the shop and learning the true identity of the silverware, Pierce excitedly asked.
"300-350 Euros, and that's if you find someone who likes it," Leonard shrugged and said, "After all, so many of these kinds of things were exported back then, and the quality of such completely commercialized things is just so-so, so they can't sell for too high a price."
What he didn't say was that he found no cards bursting out of this silver cup, which indirectly proved that the cup wasn't worth much.
Fortunately, the cup looks very clean, and Leonard is not short of money now. So he plans to wash and disinfect the cup thoroughly when he gets home and keep it for his own use.
"That's nice, you can use this cup at the pub we usually go to," Pierce said after hearing Leonard's plan.
For the British people, especially British men, pubs are a very common social setting. In this case, many prefer to patronize a fixed pub.
And if you're a regular customer, it's very common to bring your own wine glass to the pub.
The area of this flea market is not large, so it didn't take long for Leonard and Pierce to cover most of it.
To be honest, there are some fakes on these stalls. But at least it's much better than those Chinese antique markets where people open their mouths and demand tens of thousands, but in reality, the oldest item on the stall is the red cloth on the ground.
However, just as they were about to leave and check out other places, a merchant who had just set up his stall at the entrance suddenly caught Leonard's attention.
The things that the vendor displayed looked like a grocery store, with silverware, porcelain, woodware, small furniture, and jewelry filling up the entire cloth.
What attracted Leonard there was an obviously Chinese-style bottle standing amid some older-looking European porcelain and silverware.