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).

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 ...

Summer Déballages
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 Agde headland. Unloading my luggage ...

Beautiful decrepitude.
I’d booked a basic hotel in a town not very far from Bagnoles, near a vide-grenier early the following morning ...

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 at Marseillan was in full swing at 6am the next morning. It ...

Sud.
The September fairs in the south of France promised good buying after a summer lull. Before the buying at the ...

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 ...

Coherence et harmonie
Quietly shutting the door of the gite behind me, Graham sleeping, I came through olive trees into the resiny, still ...

Spring in Provence
The three large dealer Déballages held in Provence a handful of times a year are within two or three hours of ...

Au revoir Sylvie….
My dear old work pal Sylvie has gone to a new home, and it is time to welcome Nelly, my new van ...