Twinkling Murano chandeliers .........................

I absolutely  adore twinkling glass chandeliers and on our recent break in Venice there were some divine Murano glass confections....................

Oh how I wanted to bring them all home. Shame I only had a tiny suitcase! I wonder if they would have minded if I had sat with one on my lap on the flight home?

Poles apart and the Moulin Rouge!

Mark walked into our bedroom this morning clutching an electric drill and announced "I`m going to put a pole up for you sweetheart". Now excuse me?  I told him in no uncertain terms that if he thinks I am pole dancing in the bedroom just for his entertainment he had another thing coming!!!! Those of you who know me well will realise what a hysterical mental picture that paints as I describe myself as a good Merlot.....round, full and fruity!!!  He went on to explain that he was going to fix a temporary pole where I could hang my clothes whilst this chaos of a renovation takes place. Okay....problem solved and I tucked my glittery thong back in the drawer.  More screams of hysterics at the mental picture of yours truly thong bedecked!

But it did remind me of the huge top class antique fair we visited before Christmas in Paris. I can very rarely manage to buy anything at such a fair but delight in seeing all the wonderful highly gilded treasures. I always feel like an understairs maid that has been allowed to wander around the house unsupervised!

One Paris dealer had for sale the most amazing old rhinestone covered show girl costumes from the Moulin Rouge. The head-dresses had huge plumes and the tops ( if you can call them that) were a bikini affair with a spiders web of delicious cut stones that would not even cover a nip. The thongs were postage stamp size in the shape of a heart and would perhaps have fit a dancing mouse.

 I SO wanted to buy them but they were so hideously expensive that I had to walk away empty handed. Over the next hour or so I visited that stand so often to take another peek that the dealer thought I was some kind of English pervert!

And if I did have the kind of figure to wear such an outfit? I can tell you now I would always be naked and would be the biggest strumpet in Normandie!

Perhaps not a good look for a rural Normandie supermarche?

Internet......or is that inter..not ? !!!!!

Up bright and early this morning to photograph some wonderful old treasures to list in my auctions.

Everything was going fine and the photographs were looking wonderful. Then for no reason at all my pc refused to connect to the internet! But, the old slow pc right next to it would connect with no problem at all!!! So, with the old faithful I managed to list just 5 auctions in almost 2 hours and then gave up totally frustrated!

I stomped out into the garden to find the Baron having a cat nap in the sunshine and the sight of him so relaxed made me smile and I joined him with a coffee.

                                                        I`ll try again tomorrow!

Le Baron du Breuil goes solo................

Yesterday It was so cold here you would not believe. The wind cutting across the marsh was so harsh and cruel it felt like the Provence Mistral that makes your skin ache with its icy blasts. Overnight someone must have entered the cupboard and flicked the switch marked "Spring" as this morning was bright warm sunshine, the air was still and it was totally divine.

As you know I have been worrying about the first time that our kitten should be allowed outside alone.We rescued Charles le Baron du Breuil a tiny injured apricot kitten from a ditch last October and nursed him through the amputation of his back leg. That tiny bundle spent most evenings on my shoulder nestled into my neck and sometimes he seemed more bandage and sticking plaster than kitten! So you will understand why I am so protective with him!

So today seemed the day to do it. Fortunately Diggers my Jack Russell decided that today was a good day to finally discover what was living in the base of the hazlenut tree, so set about doing what a terrier does best!

The baron tentatively stepped outside and then went loop the loop! Tearing around the garden, running under bushes, chasing flies and trying to chase birds as they flew past! He went down to the waters edge and fortunately didn`t investigate any further! We sat and watched his antics in the warm sunshine.

Finally an exhausted Charles flopped out in the heat to take it all in.

Diggers gave up trying to catch the rabbit or mouse and ambled in for a drink.....Charled padded in behind him. Then they both went to the steps and settled down for a little sunbathing................

Guillaume who lives in the village came to visit with a cadeau of two trout he had caught this morning and was a little non plussed at what we were up to! So tonight the Baron had a supper of fresh fish as a reward. He really is the cat that got the cream....................or is that the trout?

Guru................................. or Gnu?????

Well that`s it then................ I am officially a fashion guru or is that a fashion gnu? I recently brought home some wonderful antique medal brooch pins to list in my auctions as I love quirky and unique jewellery and they would be divine to wear.

With the visiting family to entertain Mark and the guys hit the local cafe for red wine and football whilst us girls went off to the nearest largest town, Cherbourg, which is a 30 minute drive from here for a little retail therapy!

It was good to see some large fashion stores as the only local clothing shop here is an apron shop ( I joke not!) and they can be quite limiting in the fashion stakes! There are only so many ways you can dress up a floral nylon wrap around!

Anyone visiting this tiny corner of Normandie with the "French chic" fashion idea in their head is in for a "couture" shock. It is a rural, farming community and a nylon wrap round apron,chunky hand knitted cardigan and a pair of black wellies are "de rigeur"!!!

Since being here I have bought most of my clothes in Paris, a definate stop-off point whilst travelling around France for the fear of having to wear nylon is just too much to bear! What would happen if I moved a little too quick , sparked and then set some farmer's hay bales alight?

But Cherbourg was a real buzz and as we were all in' shop till you drop' mode as we started off in Jacqueline Riu. How I love that store; everything has just a little twist or frill and is just a little frou frou without being totally outrageous. And in the window display? A jacket with a military style medal brooch........................mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm?

Last year I visited Cherbourg when I needed an outfit for a wedding and I discovered that all the clothes on sale were a hideous burnt orange or lime green combination. I was very nearly the first person to attend a French wedding in a haute couture nylon apron with a corsage! But this year.......fantastique! So many vintage florals in soft gentle colours that I could have spent a small fortune.

Each clothes shop we went in had a wonderful array of vintage style military brooches and pins and so that`s it. Its official......I am now the family fashion "gnu" and have risen in the eyes of the younger fashionistas visiting who assume that anyone over the age of 35 was employed in the loading of the ark with Noah.


And like any good Gnu......I am Just off for a little rutting.......!!!!!!!!!

Bicyclettes , baguettes ..........and moonshine!

I saw this wonderful old two-seater shabby bike for sale at a local brocante and it immediately reminded me of Madame Levavasseur who lives in our village.

She is now in her late 80s but every morning, come rain or shine, she rides her bicyclette to the local patisserie for her daily baguette. The journey is 6 kilometres of narrow, winding country lanes taking in gentle hills and slopes but she never falters.  Wearing the traditional widow`s black long dress and with her long, grey hair swept high into a tight bun at the back of her neck, she arrives at the patisserie looking elegant, unflustered and as divine as always.

I always feel guilty when we pass her in the car....or perhaps I am envious?
Because if I took the same trip by bicyclette - and even being much younger, I would struggle and have to stop a hundred times to dismount and walk up the hills pushing the bike, and would no doubt arrive at the patisserie red in the face, gasping for breath and with my hair stuck on my face looking a wreck.
So what is her secret?   Well, I did ask her one morning.

She told me it was a good, God-fearing life of hard work and a little tot of the local home made Normandie calvados each evening before bed! The hard work I can do , but the calva? Honestly, it is such an acquired taste! It is SO strong that you could strip the paint from a door with your breath from forty paces away!!!

Madame Levavasseur is the last person in the village to hold the license for the 'still' which comes to the village once a year after the apples have been harvested. In late Autumn her yard is a hive of activity as the local farmers arrive with their produce and whilst the old still steams away for three days amongst her chicken and geese, if the toxic smell of the alchohol is not enough to finish you off then the obligatory tastings would be!  No doubt Madame receives endless cadeaux of the homemade       " moonshine" for her troubles.

At the local village champetre fete in the summer all of the men in the village drink their calva straight whilst the ladies sip it with a tiny spoon that holds a little sugar. Refusing the calva is an insult to the local farmer producer who proudly walks along the trestle tables of seated villagers with his bottle. Sometimes I can manage to sneak mine to Mark but if I am under scrutiny I have to accept and down it  - and then quietly slip under the table as the afternoon progresses!

Perhaps riding a bicyclette to the patisserie would be easier if I took a good hefty calva before setting off? I can just imagine the local press................

Local English lady found floundering in a ditch like a haddock. Gendarmes breathlyser machine explodes! Found ......one bicyclette and a baguette in field.

La poste................oh! ...........those grilles and balconnieres.............

It`s always a delight to go and drop off my Ebay parcels each day at La Poste.......the building is just so gorgeous!!

This fabulous grand old building has some wonderful decorative touches.....

Scrumptious old grilles....

It makes me feel I should be in there sending telegrams and packages tied with brown string!! The service is always relaxed, personal and friendly and the cashier always asks how I am and how my day is going.

The balconniere window grilles on the house next door to La Poste would be perfect to finish our windows here. We are having trouble finding 8 matching period balconnieres and I wonder if this house has more on the back? Would they notice if I arrived with a ladder and a drill at the dead of night? How would I explain it to the Gendarmes when I was arrested?

Would anyone come and rescue me from the cells I wonder?

A tour of my local brocante.....................

We have family to stay for a few days so of course what else would a good host do other than show them the local sights? Just another excuse for me to truffle around the local brocantes..............

This local brocante has a very tidy section, all polished and laid out neatly. Then there is my favourite section in a huge old airplane hanger filled with amazing architectural antiques and true brocante all in a sea of dust ( visitors slightly non plussed at my joy!)......I could spend hours there digging amongst the treasures! That old tin bath is simply divine and what about the Mobylette pedal and engine bike to go to the patisserie each morning?

I am absolutely addicted to old French shabby chic mirrors with delicious silvered mirror plates. I cannot resist them as each one is unique and has a look that simply cannot be reproduced. I love them when the silvering takes on a waterfall effect and those old mercury mirror plates always have such a deep twinkling reflection.

I bring so many home that they are everywhere!! Some ( less shabby chic loving) visitors to the chateau do not understand why anyone would want a mirror they cannot see themselves in! Sadly it is not worth me listing any of these wonderful old treasures for sale as shipping is so difficult. There are no regular carriers from here, they are too big and fragile for La Poste and overseas antique shippers are just SO expensive.

So.....I will have to live with them all. How tough..................................not!!!!

Calvados, cider and stencils!!!

I adore these wonderful old tin stencils that I found at the weekend. In a past life they were used to mark the crates in a local orchard that produced apples for the local calvados. I am listing them for sale tonight but as usual I want to keep them!!!