My musings, my photos, my adventures buying antiques in France and my love for brocante and antiques. The story recounts each trip to France since the very beginning (in reverse chronological order).
Les plus beaux jours….
(I have been writing a memoire of my buying trips to France for quite some time. Over the years major ...
Hold tight to your happiness
Autumn had crept in. Through the bedroom window of a Normandy sea-side villa the rusty chestnut trees silhouetted against the ...
Bounty
Arles. Walking out past les Arenes in the early morning was a heart filling pleasure. Purple flowering creeper swagged itself ...
Lunch…. and a bit of brocante
A major air traffic control outage over France cut this trip short by a day. We’d planned to have ample ...
Taking time.
Then came three days of intense buying at the Deballages in the South. Prices were swingeingly high – everyone remarked ...
Old stories.
At home in Oxfordshire, the air drenched with rain and the garden heavy with roses and peonies, collared doves nesting, ...
General abundance.
The auction at the Salle des Ventes in Le Puy was about to start. I’d arrived late, with no time ...
Travels in the Auvergne
At 10 o'clock Eric arrived at the chateau and came into the kitchen for a coffee, shaking everyone by the ...
Life gone by.
The train from Paris to Le Puy ran beside mountain rivers, past rugged stone villages built to withstand ice and ...
Brocante ici
As part of our "holiday" we were on our way to visit Saintes with its Roman amphitheatre and cathedral. The ...
“Le magasin est tres froid”
I scraped the icy windscreen on a black Sunday morning. Time for the monthly vide-grenier in Rochefort. Just beyond the ...
Cold Charente
It was decided. This trip to France was going to be a holiday, and we would not be taking the ...
Marchand de Bonheur.
It’s impossible not to feel a quiver of anticipation in the growing crowd of international dealers waiting for the gates ...
Still in Pezenas.
Laurent was preparing for major works in his shop. An eleven metre long roof truss needed to be replaced. He ...
Early morning buying
England had begun to taste of Autumn, chestnut leaves starting to curl. But I followed the swallows south to vines ...
Thanks for the kind words
Thanks Alice Roberton for the nice mention in the August edition of Period Living (out now). I have always enjoyed ...
Hot, hot, hot
The other antiques shop stood at the outskirts of the village, its wide, glazed frontage incongruous on a rural lane ...
Pineau!
The village, marooned in a green sea of vines, shimmered under strong light. On the outskirts stood an ancient distillery, ...
Early morning
Bright coloured posters at every roundabout and junction had been announcing a vide-grenier at Louzac St André the following Sunday. ...
New pastures
Lunchtime service in Royan was in full swing. Bright sun caught on awnings, ice cubes tinkled and sea food platters ...
Good, honest Brocante
A summer trip down to explore the Cognac area with it’s jewel green undulating landscape, and line upon line of ...
