From Texas to Normandy

Yesterday I waved good bye to a new friend that came here via blogging.  Laura McGuire is a tall beautiful Texan, who works as a successful stylist and is about to launch her new business in French antiques.

You can see examples of her fantastic talents as a stylist here

Laura stayed here for a week and together we trailed through  brocantes all over Normandy.  Didn't feel like work at all!  As you know I love hunting for treasure at any time of day but to do it with a friend is even more fun. 

As soon as she arrived the atmosphere was relaxed.  We both like the same stuff so it wasn't hard for me to take her to the right addresses to buy.  We went from one extreme to another - the large open air brocante yard, with sheds, and boxes and shelves to look through, to the sweet little Normandy antique and brocante dealers,  which gave us an excuse to play tourists and take pictures of the pretty towns and vilages.

Once again I have to say how amazing a blog is for bringing people together.  WHAT DID WE DO without internet?!!!

So thank you Laura, for being such a charming guest, I hope we'll meet again soon!

Photos 1 and  2 from Laura

a busy weekend

The house is quiet, the children are at school, my guests are back in Paris, even the birds in the garden seem less busy, and  I can take stock of the happy weekend I just spent in the company of Christina from Greige and her family.  Let me tell you, these girls CAN SHOP !!!

We chatted, we shopped, we visited the Chateau de Miserey, we shopped, we chatted, we ate, we drank champagne, we chatted and we shopped ..... 

I collected them from Giverny on Saturday, and we went straight off to some local brocante stores where they already started finding treasures to take home.  These shots were taken at the beautiful brocante store, Bords de Scène

Before supper we drove up to the Chateau de Miserey, where we had the park and gardens all to ourselves, until and marvelled at Madame de Roumilly's energy

Sunday morning saw us on the road early.  We had 3 brocante fairs to visit,   the whole morning went by in a flash.  In the end we weren't able to get to the third fair, we had literally run out of time and of space in the car!!  I don't know what Air France is going to say when Christina and their mum and her sister turn up to register their baggage!  I'd love to see their faces at check-in!

Once home we unloaded everything onto the lawn and enjoyed working out who had bought what, then we just had time to have lunch together before taking them AND THEIR BAGS back to the train station.

the great unloading!

books, silverware, military costumes, glasses, chairs, paintings, 

old linen, even the French flag !!

Thank you Christina and her family, and thank you also

to Pam, Janie, Robert and Liz (my guests on my first

brocante tour weekend),  and also to MaryAnn and Jerry.

You have all been charming guests, I loved welcoming you here and 

showing you around my valley.

brocante update

I am happy to say that my first ever brocante tour weekend is now fully booked - thank you  so much girls (and boy!) , I am really looking forward to our weekend together.

Quite a few people asked if I could also offer a shorter weekend, so that's what I've done.  If you want the details you can find them here, this weekend is slightly shorter, and lower priced, but still action packed.  For the moment the weekend is scheduled in June when the valley will be at its most beautiful, it's going to be a ball!

I'm also really looking forward to several tailor made weekends or mid-week visits scheduled.  Thank you all so much for the interest you have shown in this new project.  This summer I'll be lucky enough to have the chance to meet a lot of great people.  In fact a wonderful blogger Christina of Greige, is posting today about her visit to me.   I am so excited about meeting Christina and her family in just a few weeks time, we'll have a day of visiting and brocanting together, they'll have dinner here and - the tough bit ! - we'll be off at dawn on the Sunday morning to hunt down some French bargains for them!

Back on the home front, with the new brocante season up and running , I have decided to have a clean out in my brocante store and have reduced the prices on a series of items, especially in the vintage clothing.

I am also happy to say that I have a big selection of pillow shams at the moment, so if you would like to dream in French !! , just check out the selection here, I sell by pairs, or singly depending on the item.

And finally a word of thanks to all of you who buy or have bought from me, I have only been able to create my brocante store because of your interest and support.  I  love running this little store and sharing my latest finds with those of you who appreciate vintage French as much as I do.

Merci beaucoup!

our local auction house

Despite all my brave intentions about being up early on Sunday and scouring the first outdoor brocante fairs of the season, it has occurred to me that at this time of year an auction house is considerably warmer than a field!!

Next week, to my delight, we get the first auction of the season.  Of course our local auction house does some fancy sales for real collectors, but they pile up the 'ordinary' stuff and sell it off in what is called a "vente courante".

These I love!  I often bump into a girlfriend there, and we perch on an armchair and enjoy the show that the auctioneer puts on as much as if we were at the theatre!!

 

The room is always packed full of buyers and also of furniture.  The last things to be sold are the rows upon rows of mismatched chairs that we all sit on during the sale.  One by one we have to stand up and relinquish our seat to the sale assistant who holds it up in the air, while the auctioneer shouts out high praises of this "chaise exceptionelle!" and bids come trickling in.

Real bargains can be found here, all depends on how lucky you are and how much or how little competition there is for the articles that interest you.  The best buy I ever made was a complete wall  of old solid oak book shelves and cabinets for 50 euros.

The sale will be held on Tuesday next.  Here are a couple of pictures they already put up on their website, but Friday I'll enjoy the pre-sale viewing and get to poke around in the piles of boxes, squint at the dusty paintings and generally have a good time.  If you want I'll show you some pictures of the viewing.

 Which piece would you bid for?!

Brocante Tour Visits

My fixed-date brocante weekends are totally booked up now, but I am still taking bookings for tailor made short stays, including brocante tours, visits to châteaux and gardens, farmers markets, picnics and meals at home!

If you interested in visiting us for a day, a couple of days or a week, please don't hesitate to get in touch.  Accommodation would be in our guest cottage or in the local b&b le Clos de Mondetour.

Prices vary according to activities requested; but typically a weekend including all meals, station pick up, one night accommodation and trips to brocantes and a château would cost around 400 euros per person.  For a week day visit, without accommodation, including brocantes and lunch prices start at  120 euros per person.