Splash................

 I cannot tell you how much it rained at the brocante yesterday morning but when Frou Frou  took her boots off water poured out of them!

A few wary dealers sat in the café opposite waiting for a break in the weather and we joined them all feeling glum.

A quick halt in the downpour and everyone made a dash for their vans with me close behind them. I managed to buy a few treasures just before the rain lashed again and most sellers repacked and started to drive away.

One dealer was just sliding down the roller shutter on the back of his van when I spotted the top of a mannequin and asked about her. He pulled her free and my heart sank as I saw her body was almost mummified in old crepe bandages!

I have always told Frou frou that if something is covered up there will be a reason for it and to stay clear. Just as I was trying to peer under the bandages and feel for holes in the body Frou Frou ran past heading for shelter.

She gave me one of those looks that said " Mother you are on a hiding to hell with knobs on with that one".

I don`t know whether the rain had entered my ears and sunk into my brain but I paid for the mannequin and we made our way home feeling more than a little cheated at the lack of brocanting!

The mummified Madame sat in the car boot looking at me until this morning so I carried her in to strip off the bandages and to see what I had wasted my money on!

Any dealer who says they never make mistakes will be telling lies! We all do it, we will always do it and its part of the trade...you just learn, move on and try to wriggle out of the mess!

I slowly unwrapped the bandages and realised that they had been added over the years as the svelte mademoiselle had turned into a plumptious madame!

Then ooooh la la....I realised she was in superb condition below the layers and then.....a double ooh la la....at the base the scrolled lettering...

Au Bon Marche
PARIS

If it hadn`t been raining I would have dismissed her and walked away.

Perhaps the rain wasn`t so bad after all!!

A la prochaine mes belles.
xxxx

Oh grow up........

Following the problem with my vision and my stay in hospital, it appears that one of the nerves at the back of my eyes has twanged. A bit like the elastic on a thong I suppose.

However, following the scans I can now say that I have had my brain checked and it`s normal so what`s your excuse?!

Today I had an appointment with an eye specialist and the appointment letter read "Eye Re-education". 

 I was quite intrigued as to what would be happening. Would my eyes need a school bag and a pencil case? Would my eyes have to sit an exam? Would they have to wear those big blue school knickers with a pocket in and perform exercises on those rubber mats in the school hall? ( What? you didn`t have to wear those big knickers? Okay well it was the early 1960s I suppose)

We arrived early at the "cabinet medical" and I was not encouraged to see the state of the carpet on the steps up to the doctors office. Carpet as dangerous as this with people having sight problems? But hey ho I carried on regardless.

My appointment was for 11am and I was called in to see the doctor at 11.30 but "c`est la vie" here in France and nothing is rushed or ever on time.

Madame the specialist was very mysterious and after a quick form filling off we went with eye school. I had to sit on a chair in a corner - not a good start and I hadn`t even misbehaved.

Then the fun started. Madame pulled her chair close directly in front of me and held up a glass "wand" with a little red light on the end. I smiled pleasantly as she started to move it from side to side and I had to follow it with my eyes.

The waving became more and more furious and my eyes darted here and there.

You know at those times when you shouldn`t laugh and you know full well you shouldn`t, but then it`s worse because you have to try and stop yourself? Well this was it...because it struck me that she looked like a character from Harry Potter and I imagined her shouting "Expelliarmus" or "Wingardium Leviosa"!.

I just smirked and sat there with an idiot grin from ear to ear trying to keep composed. I tried thinking of other things but it simply would not work and I could see that she thought I was demented. I just sat and smirked.

Following a session of looking into a machine and saying if I saw one cat in a cage or two palm trees on an island, I was fleeced to the tune of 26 euros and ejected down the dangerous stairs of hell and into the street.

There are five things I have learned from today`s experience:

1. Grow up you are not 10 years of age.

2. The eye doctor had hairy armpits

3. The cat was not in fact in the cage but was sitting to the right and until he gets in the cage I shall have to be re-educated every week.

4. Someone has actually taken the trouble to build a website listing all the spells and their uses from the Harry Potter films.

5.The spell "Engorgio " makes things bigger.....saving this for later.

A la prochaine mes belles
xx

A night at the theatre....

Tonight I am having a night at the theatre......non.. mes belles...I am not going to Paris.....I shall not need an evening gown....... I am staying at home!

In amongst the clearance from the local manoir was this wonderful puppet theatre for children " THEATRE DES ENFANTS". I haven`t even unpacked it yet and have just managed to rub away the layers of dust.

I don`t think it has ever been used and this note is taped inside.

 

 

 

So....it will be a very exciting evening finding out what is inside!

I shall report when I have checked it out!!

A demain mes belles

xx

Boxes upon boxes....

Sooooo ... yes... I know I have been quiet but I had a phone call to go to a large local country manoir that has been inherited by a young Parisian. The attics and armoires were bursting with textiles of all shapes and sizes and I cleared it all.

It has been a major task moving it back here and now I am falling over box upon box. I am going to list it all this week just as I unpack it so you will have to bear with me! There will be no reserves and it all has to go as my stock room cannot take it!

 Simply-chateau brocante week is under way mes belles!!

The first swallow....

The first swallow of the year arrived at the chateau this afternoon. It is always a sign that summer is on the way.

Work began on my walled garden today and at the moment I feel that I couldn`t have chosen a worse spot! The ground is filled with huge boulders and blocks of old stone that are making the footings very hard work indeed!

There has always been a rumour that there is a hidden tunnel here that runs to the local chapel. I spent all afternoon hoping that as each huge boulder was lifted  there would the entrance to a tunnel below! But no....no sign of anything yet.

We have unearthed part of an terracotta floor that must have been in one of the now long gone cottages attached to the chateau and It would be good to leave it on view inside the walls.

There are lots of stones sitting waiting ready to create an arched doorway and hopefully by the time we get to that stage we will all be as muscle bound as body builders as they are going to take some lifting!

So here are the photographs on the first day of the project and I shall keep you up to date as it progresses. That is definitely "AS" and not "IF" !!

A la prochaine mes belles
xxx

Paris interiors....

And then you fall head first into the old stock of a long gone Paris interior designer and find lampshades to die for!!

This is just a small sample of the truffled batch !!

I shall start listing them later today

A la prochaine mes belles

xxx

On the way back.....

Sorry I have been missing from my blog but I was hospitalised with an eye problem...blah di blah...boring boring...but I am well on my way back to full truffle mode now.

Just a quick blog and I simply have to show you these clever mademoiselles who have started an new mobile beauty business in Paris.

Here is a link to their website.

http://www.leboudoirdescocottes.eu/


Nails painted and hair coiffed by the Eiffel Tower?

I say OUI !!!

A la prochaine mes belles
xxx

Don`t even lay a finger on it.....................

My passion for the 'Palazzo Dario' in Venice began by accident!

I was reading this book that tells the tale of a gentleman who adored his wife and  who bought her a gift of a beautiful painted cabinet with many tiny drawers from  the Dario which had been sold off at auction. However he was one of the few who had been brave enough to buy something from the 'Palazzo' which had been cursed by deaths and tragedies; any thing connected to the building was supposed to bring bad luck.

In the story the wife was so upset that he had brought home something from the "cursed" house that she refused to touch the cabinet or polish it and banished it to an unused room. Even though her husband hid a hand- written love note in one of the drawers each morning, she would never even lay a finger on the wood. let alone read his words.

I got to wondering if the Dario was a real place and had quite a surprise when I did a little research. You may remember I posted a blog about the place here.


http://simply-chateau.blogspot.fr/2013/06/the-house-of-no-return.html

On our last trip to Venice I wanted to get closer to the building so we took a vaparetto boat ride along  the Grand Canal so I could take some photographs.

It was quite a strange mystical misty morning which set the scene perfectly  - but my hopes were dashed when we sailed closer and closer only to find it covered in scaffolding undergoing conservation repairs.

We got off the Vaparetto at the next stop to see if we could get closer to the place; many buildings in Venice can only be approached by boat so I wasn`t holding out too much hope.


Imagine my surprise when we found ourselves right at the rear of the building and I was delighted to see that it was one of those rare Venitian residences that has a garden; green spaces rarely figure in Venice at all! We could not walk around the sides of the Palace as it had a canal on either side.

I peered through the gate and took some photographs. I wondered if I should lay my hand on the wall or the gate or the marble plaque or even the post box. Would the curse rub off on me?

I decided to follow the lead of the lady in the novel. I did not lay a finger on it!!

 A la prochaine mes belles
xxxx

Rose cream macaroons.......

A single tear slowly made its way over the powdered cheek of the Countess and rested on the beauty spot by her plump rose painted lips....she tried in vain to hide her tears behind her silk fan.

 

Once again the Count was ensconced behind the silk drapes of the Fenice opera house with the beautiful Italian Soprano Bianca Donadio...how could she compete with that since he had fed her so many rose cream filled macaroons that she could no longer lace her Paris corsets?

 

 

 

Actually mes belles..that wonderful shattered silk banner behind the Countess slippers is all that remains from the Bianca Donadio collection. She was an Italian opera singer soprano who sang at my favourite Venice theatre La Fenice in the late 1800s.

She married a Normandie monsieur and ended her days here in Normandie too. Many years later at his death his new wife threw out all of his previous wife`s affairs! I still have her silk music folder and this banner that is too shattered almost to handle.

 

Dreaming of Venice....

 

A la prochaine mes belles

xx

Hidden treasures....

When Tartelette comes to stay I take her to some of my favourite haunts that I have truffled through for many many years.

Most are off the beaten track and give no indication as to the treasures that lie within and I always threaten that I will blindfold her so she will not remember where she has been!

This wonderful old house gives no indication that it is a brocante and it was passed to me by word of mouth. Even the doves on the roof are silent!!

 It has a whole lifetime of treasures inside with lots of it still having the old French Francs on the faded price tags. Every drawer and cupboard is filled to the brim and I never know where to start.

I could quite happily truffle through this place for hours and hours!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend mes belles and may your truffling be a triumph!

A la prochaines
xxxx