Four floors of truffling heaven......

Ever since our move to Normandie in 2005 I have been enthralled by a small drapery/tailors shop in our local small town. It opened in the early 1920s - and has remained open ever since until last year when the owner, in her eighties, could no longer run it. 

  Filled inside with clothes from the1940s and 50s, the window display of wrap-around aprons and ditsy floral dresses has always had me in fits if laughter. It is as if the fashions have stood still in time - whilst the shop has remained open .

On market days the shop was always busy, elderly ladies, their baskets brimming with produce, going in for a chat with the owner - and often ending up giggling like teenagers as they chatted away.What stories/memories they must have to recount.

I have always said that I would go in and ask madame if she had any old stock for sale but I never got round to it. I always imagined every dealer in the area would have done the same. 

The town itself saw heavy fighting in WW2 (the town was the first in France  to be liberated by  US airborne troops in the early morning of D-Day (June 6th 1944) and receives many visitors each year. The shop carried on trading as normal during the war years;  and the two photographs here show it (right of pictures) soon after the town had been liberated by the US troops.

Last year the owner sadly passed away and the blinds have been drawn ever since. It felt like the end of an era and a sad loss for the town with another piece of its history set to disappear.

Yesterday I had a phone call from a house clearer telling me that he had been given the job of emptying the four floors of shop, that he had been working through it all for four days and had thought of me! Would I like to go and see if there was anything there I wanted?  OH MY!!!!  At last........... my chance to go through those doors into the shop's inner sanctum!. I left our house pulling on my coat and shoes at the same time!!

The contents of the shop  had been mostly packed away by the time I arrived; box upon box to sort through but I truffled through what remained unpacked. The first thing I found were "black out" curtains, obviously for use at the shop windows during the war. After checking out the ground floor, I gingerly stepped on the somewhat rickety stairs which lead up to the first floor - and what I sight met my eyes.................

....row upon row, box upon box of 1940s mens suits and shirts. Mark opened an armoire to find a host of divine 1940s gentlemans overcoats all still with their original labels. Stunning to say the least - and Mark now has a wonderful vintage winter coat to wear!

Four floors of heaven is all I can say! 1920s hats, Siegell & Stockman display stands, advertising pieces, bolts of top quality wool tailors suit fabric and even all the old invoices for the shop dating back to 1919, tied with string.

Every cupboard and armoire emptied and packed, and then, opening another door to find......

..another stairway, very narrow leading up to the attic. It, too, was filled with treasures and, through the skylight.....

.......Mark took these two photographs looking down over the old tin roof. This would have been Madame`s view of the church to her left and the town square below her where intensive fighting took place on D day.

So, some of the first treasures to be unpacked and listed are....................

............these1920s cloche hats with their original labels intact.  Simply divine and I know I will never find the same again.

After spending several hours truffling I felt doing what  this Pierrot on an advertising card is doing -  jumping for joy!!

Bon weekend, mes belles
Bisoux
xxxxxxxxxxxx

Truffling uninterupted...........

Show me any item that I have bought and sold, even from 30 years ago, and I can usually remember where I found it - and how much I paid for it!  It`s not a talent that will ever make me rich but it`s just something I can do! Probably because I love truffling for treasures so much!

I remember coming across this fabulous 19th century lamp very clearly. I absolutely adore it;  it's one of my favourite treasures.

At a very early morning brocante at a small local fishing port it had been a slow start and I didn`t really feel that I was going to come home with very much that day. Most of the tiny cottages along the quay are owned by Parisians for holiday homes; many were unocuupied, and it wasn`t looking very promising at all.

We then passed a tiny cottage just set back from the road with an empty table set up on the pavement outside the front gate. As we walked by the door opened and a very chic lady came out carrying this lamp. I stopped dead in my tracks. I  couldn`t decide whether to smile sweetly or rugby tackle her! Needless to say it never actually got to be displayed on her table.

She told me that her grandmother was Italian and had bought the cottage as a family holiday home in the early 1900s and although grandmother was long gone she loved to come up from Paris and stay for a short holiday once a year. This year she had decided on doing a bit of a revamp - and had decided that this lamp had to go. And "go" it did!  We haggled over price ( as of course you do!) and the lamp was mine.

Heavyweight bronze with the most delicieux hand- worked silk and lace shade. The icing on the macaroon is the wonderful Parisian maker`s mark!

As we continue moving along the other stands we were stopped by three separate dealers who all wanted to buy the lamp off me! In the end we took it back to the car so we could continue truffling uninterupted.

It never fails to surprise me what treasures are still hiding in the old houses over here....and long may it continue so!

A demain mes belles
xxxxxxx

LEST WE FORGET.................

As Mark meets up today with former shipmates from the Falklands War of 1982 and marches with fellow members of the South Atlantic Medal Association past the Cenotaph, Central London at today's Service of Remembrance, we should not forget those who made the ultimate sacrifice and died in the service of their country.

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them."


"When you go home tell them of us and say -
For your tomorrow we gave our today."

An oeil de boeuf at last.................

I have been searching for a zinc ''oeil de boeuf surround for the attic window for over three years - and today one fell into my lap.

Actually that isn`t quite true.....I fell into the 'oeil's' lap!!

Wandering around an architectural antiques brocante yard I turned a corner and tripped over the surround that was lying on the ground. As I lay there floundering like a haddock on the ground a very chic couple came around the corner to find me in an entangled heap. I did consider flipping onto my knees to give the impression that I was examining it very closely but it was too late; they must have heard the crash and hurried over to investigate.

Mark carried the oeil de boeuf over to the office to barter a good price and I followed behind, my face glowing with embarrassment. But I soon recovered when  'le proprietaire'  produced a large scrolled and curled cartouche that fitted on the top section; it simply had to be soldered in place. 

We managed to fit it into the car - just -  dropping off the curl at the blacksmith`s atelier on the way home to be repaired.

Soooooooooo....we now just have to talk someone into climbing up to the rooftop to see how it fits. The last time we tried to find somone to go up on the roof to repair the weather vane all the local roofers said it was too high and would only do so with a full scaffolding in place!!

I could do with a visit from someone who can do the Indian rope trick! Any offers?

Diggers update 

The antibiotics seem to be working and he is alot less red and itchy. He has finally left his bed and has had a wander in the garden...............phew!
A demain mes belles
xxxxxxxxx

Le petit ballon rouge........

Poor Sir Digbert Fanshaw Brownshaw, my beloved boy, has an allergy;  an allergy that is so itchy he's made himself almost bright red with scratching. 

 His inner ears, his mouth and lips, his nose, stomach and eyes are all aglow and he is SO miserable he has taken to his bed. (Well, no real surprise there then!) I have had to lock the bathroom door as he finds the seagrass matting very inviting for scratching by rolling on it - which simply makes him more pink.

The vet has taken swabs to try and investigate the cause. In the meantime he is on a course of antibiotics, has had an anti-cortizone injection and we have some cream for his inner ears.

Even freshly cooked chicken will not coax him from his bed. He is in a major sulk.

He looks like a little angry balloon!!

A demain mes belles.
xxx

Paris Amour............

A long drive to endure -  but the thought of truffling at the 'flea' market in Paris makes the miles go quicker for Mademoiselle Frou Frou.

Such an early start in the morning................

...............but the dealers were up long before, and have already started to set up. No time for an expresso and croissant!

Aren't those little leather boots just adorable?

And look at those little pink fripperies....I`ll get a batch together and try to barter for a good deal.

"Merci madame" .....a wonderful little haul of truffles!

Keep moving........ still so much to see. Oh heavens! A stand full of vintage clothes...............

...........followed by a vintage textile stand!

Smile monsieur!! The sun is out, this is Paris and it`s a brocante! What`s not to like?

A wonderful day truffling for treasures then off to find Mr Frou Frou for supper. Is that him? Hope not!!

Is this him? If it is, he has been doing some body building!

I`ll just check behind here.

Voila!!   Oooooooooh la la!! I have found him. 

A little Paris amour!! What a perfect end to a fabulous day.

I would like to thank.............

'Madame du chateau' steps nervously on to the stage, tears streaming down her face, but takes a deep breath and finally manages to compose herself before addressing the crowded auditorium:

" I did not create that steak and onion pie for this or any other accolade. Indeed there are very many more finer cooks than me. It was purely an accident that the pie got out of hand and happened to end up in a pie dish bigger than a Paris taxi drivers wallet!  A pie so big in fact that it had to be shared with anyone unfortunate enough to call at the chateau that fateful day. So several visitors were given a fond farewell on their departure, laden with foil-wrapped parcels as heavy as a set of 'petanque' balls -  and for that I now apologise most humbly"

She falters, lets out a sob and grabs the podium to steady herself before continuing........

" But to open a parcel this morning to find this wonderful award from the Collins household is purely a wonderful honour. An award I shall sport with a ribbon at every possible occasion. 

It seems like only yesterday ( although it was 40 years ago) that I, a young Miss Fellows, was thrown out of cookery classes at  school for making soup that would not leave the bowl [which incidentally turned out to be useful in later life when it came to mixing cement!] Instead I was forced to study German. To that domestic science teacher I say today......ACHTUNG!!!  Take that, you old battleaxe!

I was even more elated to find that the Collins household had personalised my award on the reverse with a marker pen."

(She sobs again and smooths down her lace apron). 

"I should like to thank the ready made pastry company, the boucherie department in the supermarche and, finally, Antoinette - the chicken that laid the egg to glaze the top".

As she begins to leave the stage the flash of paparazzi cameras cause her to stumble on the steps and fall into the laps of Daniel Craig and Johnny Depp. 

" Hello boys.....fancy some of my home made pie?" she whispers."


A demain, mes belles
xxxx

The Monday blues..............

I seem to have had a bad case of the blues at the brocante yesterday!!

But it wasn`t anything to be miserable about!!

A demain mes belles
xxxx