Chez nous.....

Back at the chateau now and I don`t think I could even start to explain what a whirlwind truffling trip it has been.

The studio is laden with treasures and a wonderful hush has settled over the chateau now that Tartelette has departed for Provence!! It was wonderful to meet Monsieur Tartelette Jeff and there has been so much laughter as we travelled. 

Tartelette and Monsieur Tartelette in truffling mode.

( I think she turned him down...the "bling" in this ring was too small!!)



Tempting as it was to carry on down South with her I needed to come home to my Diggers and Charlie and to try and make some order of the hoards of treasures now in boxes and bags all over the house.

But this guy is mine and I have the perfect shelf for him.

My listings will commence again tonight and here are a few photographs of the haul before we even open the boxes!!!

A la prochaine mes belles
xxxx

Oink !!

Many years ago...more years than I care to remember I answered an email from a Ebay buyer who had been my number one client for 18th and 19th century Vichy check. 

The email read " I am coming Paris could we meet up?". I politely refused but she worked on me with more emails until she caught me at a weak moment and I gave in. Kind of like a Chinese water torture thing. 

She came clutching treasures.....

It soon became apparent how similar we are, almost "sisters from another mister" and we have been firm friends ever since.

So....brace yourselves for again we are awaiting the arrival of Tartelette Amy from Oregon and then we are off truffling!!

Last time we set off on a trip we found so many things that I had her packed so tightly in the car that all you could see of her was one hand!!

To say the least she is a live wire with boundless energy, a wicked sense of humour, a very good eye, a knack for talking me out of my own personal treasures, she cooks her own pasta, tries to poison me with Mexican food, never stops talking,  and has a heart of gold. (But don`t tell her said the last bit I have to keep her on her toes!).

Charles le Baron du Breuil is going in to hiding as we speak

Sir Digbert Fanshaw Brownshaw is waiting patiently as she brings him chicken chews USA style!

She is always first out of bed for truffle trips and I have known her disappear out in to the darkness at 4 a.m from a hotel room as the call of what she might find is simply too much to bear.

She is the only person who managed to entice me on the Paris Metro at rush hour. Not only that, but we were pulling a trolley loaded with treasures she had found at an early morning market. Most of it fell off at regular intervals and we had to carry the trolley up endless steps! 

She is also the only person who could entice me for a "tuctuc" ride up the Champs Elysees with some poor guy pedalling away in front of us as she waved like the queen on an official outing. But we were going to Laduree for gateaux so she is excused.

At the end of the day we usually have to do " show and tell" where we get to truffle through each others finds. This usually ends with a bout of stealing from each others bags, the odd scuffle a few Chinese burns with a little begging thrown in.

I managed to talk her out of this wonderful gilded Sacre Coeur last time and I am going to hide it so she can`t take it back with her this time!!

I remember well one day turning a corner at an early brocante I found her sitting on the grass in a huge pile of antique ballet costumes. She looked up at me and said " I don`t know...which one shall I have?". 

I panicked as looking round I could see Paris textile dealers approaching from every angle. I dragged her to her feet yelling  "The LOT take the LOT...all of it...now...quick!!!" We proceeded to stuff it all in bags before we got mobbed and we were followed back to the van by a host of ladies ( I use that term loosely as they were heat seeking missiles in sling backs wearing shoulder pads)  asking to look and buy what was there.

So, we are off to a huge brocante that runs for 6 kilometres through a forest. It is so big that last year after walking it for the third time I demanded to be airlifted back to the hotel!! 


I hope the weather is good to us.

I shall keep you posted as the trip goes on. 

I forgot to say that I received an email from a Ebayer with nothing better to do who gave me a ticking off about using the word "truffling"  saying it was "artificial speech intended to impress - adopted for merchandising purposes"'

 As most of you know I have used that word for 30 years to describe my hunting for treasure like a truffle pig. So to that lady I say a firm "OINK!!!"

A note to Dee, Blanche and Mo....I am still alive and kicking...not missing in action just in full truffle mode..one of the truffelerati....xxxx

A la prochaine
xxxxxxxxxxxx

Madame....I am undone.....

After a week of fawning over the sewing box of the Countess I have managed to force myself away from it to take some photographs....

I wonder what she sat and stitched by candlelight?

I am listing it tonight and keeping all the contents inside...who could bear to split them up? Not me!!

I have no idea what this is...have you? It operates like a pair of tweezers with the end clasps.

This little  silk brocade needle case is so charming...

And as for the needle case with the seed pearls and the gold wire embroidered crown........

In the words of Johnny Depp in the film  Chocolat....madame I am undone!


A la prochaine mes belles
xx

Everything comes to those who wait.....

It must be over 3 years ago that I was called to a charming old house to value some items that were part of an estate. There was a large family of relatives and descendants and the house and contents were to be sold and shared between them. The elderly titled owner had been in a rest home in Paris and had not returned to the Summer residence for many years.

I valued what I could and I left a quote on some of the items I would like to buy. I never ever expected to hear anything and to be honest I had forgotten all about it.

Then I had a very surprising call from a local lawyer to meet him at the house and to see what, if anything, I wanted from the little that remained.

I expected to find just the total rubbish was left but instead I was delighted.

Oh my...you are going to adore these treasures mes belles!!

I shall say one thing .....the silk monogrammed and crown embellished stockings of a Countess...be still my beating heart!!!

I shall start listing today and below is a peep in some of the boxes.

And the sewing box of the Countess? Well that`s something I shall tell you as I photograph it!!

A la prochaine.....

Monsieur Brossard at Chateau Chinon............

.

Truffled this morning.. Wonderful old invoices and cheques dating from the late 1800s and early 1900s. All addressed to Chateau Chinon. They came from an old quincaillerie hardware store in Autun. Wonderful old sepia ink scrolled script. I shall leave them in the batches I found them in!!!

Does this mean someone is truffling in the attics of the Chateau Chinon?
Me thinks a little detective work is in order.. Dons cloak and sneaks through turret door..

a la prochaine mes belles.....

You shall go to the ball.............

Well bonjour mes belles!!

The new website is now up and running and there will shortly be some treasures to buy direct from the site which will please my trufflees who hate Ebay!

www.simply-chateau.com



Our truffling trip was superb and now I am in the process of unpacking and getting it ready for photographs. I like unpacking the things I forgot I had bought!

The new Disney Cinderella film is launched and as I supplied yards and yards of 19th century black hat veil to their design team I am delighted to see it was actually used.....

Charles le Baron du Breuil has somehow managed to strip all of the fur from one ear and it is angry and raw. I have a feeling he might have walked underneath the farmers tractor after it had just been used and burned the fur on the tractor exhaust. 

Sir Digbert Fanshaw Brownshaw is full of the joys of Spring which gives no indication to his 14 years of age. I found him up on the kitchen table yesterday lapping up some cream I had put there for Charles to cheer him up after his injury. Who says a 78 year old can`t jump?!!!

In the photograph above he is testing The Princess and the pea theory to see if he really is royalty!

I shall be revealing my latest finds this week so keep watching!

A la prochaine mes belles

xxxxx

The Paris Flea................

Mais oui!

Back soon with new treasures mes belles

xxxx

La Maison Blanche.......

It has been a fabulous day of truffling and I already have some wonderful treasures on board.

I simply had to show you this amazing dolls house I saw this morning. It was so big that it filled a trailer attached to a car and on chatting with the seller he told me it was supposed to be The White House.

 

I would love to know who took the time to create this unique confection.

 

Made with such love and care I wonder where it`s new home will be?

Click on the photographs to see closer.

It`s an early start tomorrow for a 1000 strong brocante in the morning. I tend to post photographs directly from my phone on to my Facebook page as I go throughout the day. But I know that not all of you use Facebook so I will catch up here as soon as I am home.

A la prochaine mes belles
xxxx

Gone truffling.............

I am off for a week of truffling. Line them up and let me at them!!!!

Back soon hopefully with hoards of treasures....

Have a wonderful weekend mes belles

xxxxxx

Mothers Day gift....

Would it be too much to ask for this for Mothers Day?

Tartar Tent, Château de Groussay, Montfort l’Amaury, France

The globe-trotting Frenchman Charles de Beistegui bought Château de Groussay in 1938, almost 125 years after it had been built. He then transformed its grounds into a wonderland of global references, with follies inspired by travels to India, Mexico, and all of Europe. In addition to constructing an observatory, a pagoda, a pyramid, and a “Love Temple” reminiscent of the Trianon, he erected this Tartar Tent of painted metal in 1960, lining its interior with 10,000 Delft tiles........

Click on the photograph to see it larger.

I so NEED it in my life!!

A la prochaines mes belles
xxxx