The 20€ piece of cheese

France has a lot of what they call Vide Greniers, which basically means 'empty Attic' and would closely resemble a car boot sale. People gather together their unwanted stuff and sell it on the street. It can be a really good way of getting rid of unwanted stuff and making a little money into the bargain.

Vide Greniers differ from car boot sales as they have commercial stands as well as public (or should that be private?) stands. Many also have fairground attractions and occasionally, live music.

We went to one today in Domfront which had all the above. Our mission was to get some of our business fliers out on the cars parked nearby - after all, you can't look a gift horse in the mouth, can you?

Despite being there to advertise and not buy, we just had to have a look round and found ourselves at a cheese stall. The man kindly shaved off a couple of slivers and handed one to each of us. It was really nice and Pen thought it might be nice to take some home with us.

Now one of the reasons we're here in France is because of cheese. Well it's not really, but we are both partial to a cracking bit of cheese - Grommit.

So Pen asked him to cut a piece off this huge quarter wheel - about a quarter to half a pound of the stuff or 100 to 200 grammes. We nearly ended up with one huge piece until Pen persuaded the man to cut it thinner.

He did and when Pen was satisfied that it was small enough, he cut.

Once on the scales, we had the shock of our lives. The piece was half a kilo - about a pound in English money.

The price?

22€

Yup, you heard right, but we got it for the bargain, knock-down price of 20€

"Can you cut that in half?" Pen asked, blanching at the price.

"No," was the simple answer. "Not now it's been cut."

Yes, the cheese was nice, but not that bloody nice. Nevertheless, we had agreed to the piece and paid.

It's probably the most expensive bit of cheese either Pen or I have bought, but I can tell you now, as nice as it is, we won't be rushing back for another piece any time soon.

We left there sharpish and posted as many cars as we could find with our fliers and now have our fingers crossed that we can get some work from them to pay for what we bought today.