Get me to the port on time.....................

I am on the early ferry back home to France in the morning. I just can`t wait!!! 3 days in a town with cars, trains and millions of people is too much for me!!!

Wishing myself a bon voyage as I simply want to be home!!!!!!
And as for that hamster..................................bonsoir..........jamais encore monsieur!!!!!

What on earth does it do all night?

Oh please...............what on earth does that hamster do all night? I have relegated it to the hall but it is still SO noisy!!!!

I`m going to fit it with a silencer! Bak to France on Saturday.................can`t wait!!

Sleeping with vermin!!

NO I have not run away with Johnny Onions!!!! I am simply in old Blighty for a couple of days!!! I am however sharing a bedroom with a hamster and I don`t do vermin.......ugh!..... cute as he may be!!!! He will be relegated to the hallway very shortly!!
Back soon.................a la prochaine.................

Johnny onions........................

Before we moved to France and we still had our shop in Dorset Johnny Onions was a regular caller to the town to sell his Britanny pink onions. He would arrive in his battered old van filled with his wonderfully fresh farm grown onions all strung together in the traditional plaits. Out of the van he would unload  his battered bicyclette, he would don his beret and begin his tour of the town.
When he called into the shop for a cafe we used to have such fun as he would talk to me in his best English and I would talk to him in my best French. He was possibly one of the very last "Johnny Onions" to make the regular crossing with his wares.
I knew that Johnny Onions had been a long tradition but it wasn`t until recently I had the time to do a little research and this is what I found.



Although having declined in number since the 1950s to the point where only a few remained, the Onion Johnny was once very common, and with the renewed interest since the late 1990s by the farmers and the public in small-scale agriculture, their numbers have recently made a small recovery. Dressed in striped shirt and beret, riding a bicycle hung with onions, the Onion Johnny became the stereotypical image of the Frenchman and in the past may have been the only contact that the ordinary British had with France.

Originating from the area around the town of Roscoff known as Bro Rosko, in Brittany, Onion Johnnies are farmers who found a more profitable market in England than at home, and typically bring their harvest across the English Channel in July to store in rented barns, returning home in December or January. They could have sold their products in Paris as well, but the roads and the railways were bad in the 19th century and going to the French capital city was still a long and difficult trip, while crossing the channel was shorter and easier. The trade apparently began in 1828 when the first successful trip was made by one Henri Ollivier. Although journeys are now made by ferry, small sail ships and steamers were previously used, and the crossing could be hazardous. Seventy Johnnies died when the steamer SS Hilda sank at Saint-Malo in 1905.

Next time you slice a French onion will you wonder where it came from?

A new caring owner.................at last.............

I have watched this wonderful enchanted old chateau slowly crumble over the years. It has stood empty , alone and unloved since before the first time I saw it - some 10 years ago. The shutters were firmly closed, the gardens overgrown and slowly it was deteriorating.

Imagine my suprise when I passed it early this morning on the way to a brocante. A few of the shutters were open, the grass was cut and there were cars parked at the steps. So of course I had to get closer to investigate!

New owners!!! New owners at last!!!! I didn`t have the nerve to open the gates and go any closer ( especially as a few faces appeared at the windows to see what I was doing!) But,I could see that inside was awash with step ladders, painters and builders.

I do so hope they treat the old girl kindly................she deserves gentle care and attention! I hope they keep all her wonderful period features, but if not, believe me....I`ll be through that gate and in that builders rubble as quick as a truffle pig in the forest!!!

I`ll let you know what happens.

Passionately Paris.....a tassel off the old portiere !

Having been an antique French textile dealer (addict!) for over 25 years now ( ouch!!), my daughter, Kate, grew up amongst heaps of old textiles and trims and hoards of wonderful old shabby treasures sourced from my trips to French brocantes and vide greniers. 
As a teenager I remember her saying that when I eventually moved on to that big brocante in the sky she would immediately throw it all out and buy brand new and shiny!

How times have changed!!!! Kate launches her own, new brocante business next week, appropriately called I think:

                            "PASSIONATELY PARIS"


To help her get started I have been rummaging through boxes and bags in our barns  looking for old stock and a multitude of finds which I have hoarded over  years. Heavens!!! There are things I had forgotten I even had!!!
So............. "Passionately Paris" will begin trading with some delicious shabby chic finds and Kate's first venue is at the antiques market in the Town Hall, Shaftesbury, Dorset on Tuesday 7th June. 
As you will see from the photograph she has quite a wide mix of delights - and this is just a tiny batch of what I have truffled out!!!
So, finally. It's not so much a 'chip off the old block';    more a 'tassel off the old portiere' !!

Just for me.....................

Just look at what I treated myself to today from  local brocante.............................

Isn`t it just divine?.........................................I have no idea where I`m going to use it yet but I`m sure it won`t take me long to find it a home!!!!

The old barn door................................

This old door was attached to one of the openings on one of the derelict workers cottages here at the chateau...................I used it for my photographs when it was still just attached by one rusted old hinge and I am still using it today even though it has now hit the woodpile!!!

The old paint is just so wonderfully distressed with a look that just couldn`t be reproduced...............

It looks so forlorn in the woodpile. It no longer has a top and is just a bottom half with a handle!! I just can`t help feeling guilty for throwing it there!!

I wonder who used that door when the barn was part of a servants cottage in the early 1800s?

Everytime I go out into the garden he looks at me as it to say "traitor.....you have discarded me....and after all the help I have given you!"

Would everyone think me totally mad if I try to include him somewhere in the renovations?

Two furry little derrieres.....................

Oh heavens the weather is SO wonderful!!!! Instantly forgotten are the lashing wind and cold of the winter!!!
I have recovered from my rant of yesterday, sometimes it`s just good to get things off your chest and move on!
I have been trying to catch up today after being away for a week. I got up early to start the Ebay parcels and only later on did I realise that today is a national holiday here and that I also missed quite a few street brocantes! So with this wonderful light I have been photograhing and listing.
It`s so lovely to be home to my boys.........................two little derrieres toasting in the sun.

Shabby chic..........................passe?........................NEVER!!!!!!

Very recently I received an email via Ebay from a complete stranger - neither a customer or a personal  friend. Her message to me was simply to complain about my using the phrase 'shabby chic' in my auctions, which seemed to irritate her. She seemed to imply that I should stop describing my treasures  as "shabby chic", adding, in French,  "c'est tellement passe, mon cher".  [ 'so outdated, my dear'].

A day or so later I travelled over to the UK and bought myself the latest (May) edition of 'Country Living' magazine.And what did I read on page 43? A special feature entitled  " The return of shabby chic"!
All I can say to that person ( whoever she might be) is "Ma cherie  [at least I can get my grammar correct!] - shabby chic passe?   Hardly.  I don't think it ever went away!!"