My musings, my photos, my adventures buying antiques in France and my love for being a Brocanteuse. The story starts right at the bottom of these entries and recounts each trip to France made since the very beginning.
Les plus beaux jours….
(I have been writing a memoire of my buying trips to France for quite some time. Over the years the ...
Markets
(From pre-pandemic times) Autumn had crept in. Through the bedroom window of a Normandy sea-side villa the rusty chestnuts stood ...
Bounty
Walking out past les Arenes in the early morning was a heart filling pleasure. Purple flowering creeper swagged itself across ...
Lunch…. and a bit of brocante
(From the time before Covid……) A major air traffic control outage over France cut this trip short by a day. ...
Taking time.
(From the time before Covid). Then came three days of intense buying at the Deballages. Prices were swingeingly high – ...
Old stories.
(From the time before Covid) At home, the air drenched with rain and the garden heavy with roses and peonies, ...
General abundance.
(From a time before Covid) The auction at the Salle des Ventes in Le Puy was about to start. I’d ...
Travels in the Auvergne
I’d known Eric for eight years. At 10 o'clock he arrived at the chateau and came into the kitchen for ...
Life gone by.
The train from Paris to Le Puy ran along 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
(From a time before Covid…..) It was decided. This trip to France was going to be a holiday, and we ...
Marchand de Bonheur.
(From a time before Covid....) It’s impossible not to feel a quiver of anticipation in the growing crowd of international ...
Christmas Decorative Home and Salvage Fair online, Saturday 28th & Sunday 29th November
Organised by AS Fairs, this online Christmas fair will showcase one hundred dealers, fifty on each day over the weekend, ...
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 round about and junction had been announcing a vide-grenier at Louzac St André the following ...
A good day…..
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 ...
Chartres and Le Mans
Entry to the Chartres Deballage was now limited to dealers with a trade ID card. Heated arguments erupted at the ...
Social
This was a quick trip down through Normandy to the dealer fairs in Chartres and Le Mans. In Valognes, on ...
Last day
It was the last market - Montpellier. Barry confirmed that I’d almost filled the space booked on his van. With ...
Deserted
That December I’d booked to stay by the sea. The receptionist said “Madame Hanna, you are the only guest here ...
Christmas was coming…
Snow and a vicious Mistral wind chill was forecast for the south of France. Driving to the depot of a ...
Memories of warmer days
Next day the big dealer markets began – time now for some major activity. I met up with Barry who ...
Pezenas and other buying
Green metal gates opened into a courtyard full of rusting garden furniture and stone fountains. In the large old hangar ...
Hot summer markets
The road came to a dead end. Ahead a few white yachts plied round the headland. Unloading my luggage in ...
Beautiful decrepitude.
I’d booked a basic hotel in a town not very far from Bagnoles, near a vide-grenier early the following morning ...
Data Protection
With the new ruling on privacy and data protection now in place please be assured that your email address is ...
Rummaging
I called into the new shop of a charming woman I’d not seen for some years. She was cleaning a ...
Early Spring in Normandy
This was the first trip to France for Nelly, the new van. There had been Little Moe, then Sylvie, and ...
Puces.
The regular "Puces" flea market on the coast was in full swing at 6am the next morning. It had moved ...
Sud.
The September fairs in the south of France promise good buying after a summer lull. Before the buying at the ...
Joyeuses fetes de fin de l’année
Remembering with gratitude the wonderful people who brought light, life and creativity into this year. Remembering with love those no ...
Loire grazing
I'd been to the regular monthly market at Montsoreau a few times. It is a delightful village with a chateau ...
Quirky….
A large Brocante had opened on the N12, a ruler straight road south of Verneuil that thundered with lorries. This ...
Brocanteur, brocanteuse
Brocanteur: The photograph was hanging in Jean-Paul's shop. "The look on his face," he said, "of profound despair..... It was ...
Place des Deux Fontaines
I wanted to visit a dealer in a nearby village full of fountains and winding streets. The shop was yet ...
Provencal finds
Beautiful Uzes was not far up the road from Castillon. I remembered it fondly from a visit when I was ...
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