simply-chateau: An attic, full of dowry linen.......

I received a call yesterday from a lady asking whether I would be interested in buying some of her family's dowry linens. I had no idea what I would find; all I knew was that the "grandmere" had lived to be 100 years old and the linens had belonged to not only her but her mother too!

I sometimes dread house calls. The people I meet are always so wonderful and welcoming but if the items they want to sell are awful I feel very bad wriggling out of a purchase. I have sometimes come home with items I'd would ordinarily not have bought rather than say "non" !!

But yesterday was quite different; a good treasure haul!! Madame had laid out all the finest fresh white embroidered linens on her table for me which of course I was more than happy to buy. The farmhouse was so beautiful too and was filled with rustic Normandie armoires and dressers that have been passed down through the generations.

As I was about to leave she told me she had a few more linens in the attic but she thought they were not what I would want. PING!!!!!! On hearing that the Simply-Chateau ears stood up like a dingo!!

She asked her husband to open up the attic and I followed him up a rather old, rickety ladder; so rickety in fact that I stood on the ladder and just poked my head into the attic whilst 'monsieur' carried bags over for me to look at.

There were numerous bags full of monogrammed linen, metis, bleached and unbleached sheets and all look as if they had never been used.

And so....on this occasion I bought all that lot as well!!

Then the obligatory sit with a café and a homemade gateau whilst I looked at her family photographs and old wartime postcards sent from her grandpere to her grandmere in the early 1900s. The café was followed with a petite liqueur- there is no point refusing at this point as it always falls on deaf ears and I suppose it is a Normandie thing!!!

She showed me a photograph of herself in 1946 when she was just a small girl standing next to a tiny donkey foal and she was wearing a dress made out of parachute silk! How I wanted to get my phone out and photograph it for you to see!!!

I left with rosy cheeks, a couple of gateaux recipies and a car filled with treasure.

If only it was that easy every time!

I shall start listing some of the haul this evening, and over the coming days.