Back in the land of the living!

Bonjour!!!! It`s nice to be back in the land of the living and thanks for all your lovely messages and phone calls. My cold is on its way out of the porte and I am left with a hideous cough that sounds like a cigar smoking donkey! Oh well, at least you will hear me before you see me!!!

So off truffling for treasures this morning and I found this wonderful old wooden marionnette......

He has quite a wicked little face  and I am going to try and research the character as he seems a little like the English Mr Punch........

Isn`t he just divine? I guess he must date from the early 1900s. I have heard of the French puppet Guignol so I`ll check that out.

Two brocantes in the morning...................let me at `em!!!

Under the weather...................

Missing in action suffering with a summer cold........................

Back soon.........................

Bare faced brocanting.....................

I simply adore Saturday and Sunday mornings here as there is always a street brocante, or two or three (!) to get up early for. It`s no effort to get up early as the anticipation of what I might find is always so exciting. The day it becomes run of the mill is the day to stop and I can`t ever see that ever happening.

 So it`s alarm ring, jeans and sweater on, sneakers on, quick wash, hairbrush, grab an apple as I dive through the cuisine and out of the door into the dawn. Who needs make up at that time of the morning?!! ( I do sometimes regret that by mid morning when the elegantly coiffed and maquillaged ladies who get up much later hit the streets and I look like I have slept under a hedge!!!)
Todays truffling produced treasures that are all divine.................................( you can click on the pictures to enlarge)...........

A batch of gorgeous vintage cherub handles unused still in tissue and a batch of handloomed linen chemises with superb dowry monograms................

Heart rendering childrens work records from the early 1900s for appentices in the textile trade...............

Pretty exhibition advertising leaflets from Paris & Le Mans in the 1900s ..........

Old textile sample cards............quite like that absinthe colour!...........

Delicious old picture frames................

Fabulous old pictorial menu cards printed in Paris all unused and lots more too.

 So tomorrow is another day for truffling so it`s off to bed early. It`s the bare faced bird that catches the worm!!!!
Be at the cuisine door at 5.30 am if you are coming with me................

Seagrass and salle de bains................

Spent the afternoon laying seagrass carpet in the salle de bains..............

Heavens! Is that stuff stretchy!!! Looking wonderful though.

 An early start tomorrow morning at a local brocante. I`ll let you know what I find!

A la prochaine...............................

Bienvenue......................welcome......Martha...........

This wonderful pink envelope and notelet arrived this morning announcing the arrival of baby Martha.

A charming notelet from Martha herself written by her proud parents.

And that divine 'Germaine Bouret' picture................so perfect! If baby Martha has half  the chic French charm of her beautiful mother and just a smattering of the warmth and humour of her father she will be an angel.

Congratulations....'félicitations'  Veronique et Guillaume.  xx

Babes who brocante......................

I am shattered, dirty and heading for a long hot bath! The scaffolding has just come down ready for it to be returned to the hire company in the morning...............but................at least we are finally grey..................

More pictures tomorrow.......but I will leave you with a shot of all the other buildings still to be renovated........................

I am going to lie in the bath and try not to think about the enormity of the restoration but I will instead look forward to when this barn becomes my office and stock room!!

Perhaps we should include some gites and you can all come and stay. Instead of "Ladies who lunch" we could do " babes who brocante"!!!!

Old lush........................

That`s it! That`s it! Enough!!!!! I`ve had enough of this renovation..................enough of the banging and crashing, the drilling and sawing, people stomping in and out bringing plaster and mud, the smell of paint, the cold rushing in when the last one in leaves the door open.............I`m going to have a coffee.....no......to hell with it.....a big glass of calvados.....................a really big glass............

And....I didn`t get to go brocanting all weekend as we had so many people here, builders, painters and uncle Tom Cobley and all so now I have withdrawal symptoms and keep wondering about all those treasures I might have missed.....................

And....I am fed up of having everything packed away in boxes and having to make sure you wear slippers in the middle of the night when you pad to the salle de bains just incase you tread on a nail or screw....

And I am sitting here typing with my coat on as the windows are wide open for the shutters to be fitted...............

And.....some fly has had the audacity to poo on my newly upholstered cafe check stools in the cuisine and when I catch him I`ll swat him flat making an example of him to all the other flies on the marsh......................!!!!!

And ...........its so cold here and there is a gale hurling across the marsh that would slice the face of an Eskimo in an iron mask. So, I lit Hercule the old range and when I was filling him with coal dragged the sleeve of my coat across the top and it sizzled into a charcoal mess................................

And...I can`t connect to photobucket to host my photographs for my auctions for some mad reason........and my hair is like straw and I haven`t seen my make up for weeks......and I have hairy legs......another sip I think...................

And......the house paint is a lot lighter than I thought and its looking like a fairy cake with icing......another glass I think............shhhould I...yesh why not....

and...............I shuppose it will all be okay won`t it? It will won`t it.....I SHAID IT WILL WON`T IT?..........jusht anutha schmall ship of calva....................

Jusht going to resh my head on the table a minute..........................................hello ickle ickle ickle fly.........whatsh your name then ickle fly?.............................

I love you ickle fly......................I really really really love you fickle eye....................


zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....................................

The chaton at the chateau.............

The French word for a kitten is a "chaton" so I suppose that makes Charles le Baron du Breuil "The chaton from the chateau". We have spent the day packaging our Ebay parcels, helped or is that hindered by Charles?

He is obsessed by boxes, bubble wrap and tissue paper and can`t resist getting comfy.........................

He doesn`t mind looking a little decorative and is actually quite vain...................

Just look at thoses cheekbones....I`m sure he`s had a little botox.............

He helps with typing auction listings..............

Packaging................

But sometimes he does go a little too far!!!!!

Grenouille.................

You would not believe the noise in the garden! It is so loud we can hardly hear the TV!!! It starts at dusk and gets gradually louder. The bottom of of garden meets a small stream on the marsh and the frogs must be breeding................

The large male frogs called "crapaud" call out to attract the females and I am sure it is a competition to see who can call the loudest...................

Judging by the noise there must be hundreds out there......

So perhaps its good for them that we could never eat grenoilles a ail..........

frogs legs in garlic........but if they don`t pipe down and let us get some sleep tonight......

We might just try them!!!

Don`t you just............................

Don`t you just love blue shutters..............

Especially when they are Provencal blue............

And don`t you just love finding a cafe that serves steaming hot moules mariniere with huge chunks of freshly baked baguette from the patisserie opposite...........

and don`t you just love a bustling little family run patisserie where the divine smells of handmade chocolats, fruit tartlettes and warm bread caress your senses..............

and the handmade tarts glisten like tiny jewels....where no matter how tiny your purchase it is treated like a precious treasure and wrapped with ribbons and bows....

and don`t you just love a tiny harbour where the fisherman unload their catch and you can sit outside at a tiny bar with a cafe noir and watch the amazing choice of fresh fish.....

Don`t you just love Saint Vaast la Hougue?