Cute vintage Paper Lanterns.........

Last week on my travels I found two boxes brimming with old paper lanterns.................

Lots of different bright and breezy colours and all very well preserved........

all with their little metal candle holders inside...( might not be using that facility!!).....and fine wirework hangers.....

There must be 40 in the batch and I adore them!!! I can feel another garden lunch coming on just so I can tie them along the bunting!
A la prochaine mes belles.................

Gorgeous weather and gorgeous friends.............

A long relaxed lunch today with some wonderful friends including my two long time textile dealer friends from the UK.  Linda Clift and Lizzie Drake were passing through en route to a vintage textile and costume fair.

It was wonderful to catch up on all the news from the UK and we sat overlooking the marsh for a good few hours. 

 As we sat down to eat a blackbird flew into the pear tree above and sang all afternoon! His song was so beautiful that I am sure they thought it was a recording that I had managed to conceal with speakers!!!

Perfectly timed birdsong......perfect friends and a perfect summer afternoon.

La belle France never fails to please!

Chez nous.................

Finally home after 4 days of truffling and the break was wonderful. Beautiful warm weather, lots of brocantes and the thrill of waking up in a new place each day with the promise of finding something wonderful hiding in a place I have never searched before. I most definitely have a bad case of brocantitus and I hope it is never cured!!
I have some divine treasures to list and here is one of my favourites.......

What shall I call her?

Itchy feet.................

I have itchy feet for new truffling ground so we are off on a little road trip trip for 4 days. I don`t know where but we are just going to set off and see what we find in the countryside and village brocantes en route!!!
Back soon mes belles hopefully laden with delicious shabby vintage treasures.....................

p.s. Thankyou Marianne for my cadeau...............I love it....grand bisoux!!

Will you be my neighbour?

The 'chateau' had just one neighbour - but old Jean-Jacques sadly passed away in January. He was born in  the old stone house and had lived there happily for over 80 years, his family having lived there before him.  Unrestored and crumbling it is now up for sale.

A huge rambling old "L" shaped 18th century building it has.......................

a pidgeonaire.................

barns, haylofts and outbuildings...............

...and archways where the horsedrawn haycarts of old would have passed through.

Two huge fields are now being reclaimed by nature so fast  that his few cows have gone too.

And the old doorways...........just divine.

It is for sale for £65,000 which seems so little but heavens - the work to restore it! I know that the ceilings on the first floor have fallen in but it didn`t seem to matter to old Jean-Jaques. He lived happily on the ground floor and hadn`t been up there for years!

Just the two houses at the end of the lane before the marsh sprawls out beyond us.

Would you like to be the next person to open the door and live here?

The Duke & Duchess with the Baron.................

She bores me.....................she really bores me! She is flapping about on the table above me photograhing some old textiles she found at a brocante. Totally ignoring "moi".....how rude.... does she know who I am?........I am after all Charles le Baron du Breuil!

Now she is harping on about a Duke and a Duchess and getting all excited....something about you don`t find a crown on a linen for 2 years then you find two lots in 2 weeks........honestly....she bores me......yawn!

Excuse me Charles your highness if I may step in here for a moment?  Crowns of aristocracy on any trousseau linens are so very rare that last week I was loop the loop to find the bed linen of a Count & Countess. It has been years since I found any.
And yesterday at a brocante, the last brocante of the day, I stumbled upon a set of six divine old table napkins with the crown of a Duke or in French Duc and Duchesse! It was way after noon and they had been sitting there all morning..........where were all the textile dealers?!!!!

Always five floral points on a crown for a Duke & Duchess.

And if I may be so bold your worship.......a Duke ranks higher than a Baron!

Talk to the whiskers `cos the face don`t wanna hear it!

La pharmacie Lesage...............

Whilst travelling between brocantes early this morning we had to stop the car when we saw this amazing Art Nouveau building..............

I had no idea what it was as I crossed the road with my camera.....getting closer I saw the Pharmacie sign.........................

We were passing through the small town of Douvres La Delivrande and I couldn`t wait to get home to find out more about it. The Pharmacie Lesage was built in 1901 by Georges Lesage.

It is famous for its flower grilles and petal shaped window.

 There is a superb inscription plaque......

and the interior is magnificent.

I have managed to track down an old postcard too

Amazing..................simply amazing!

A Mousewarming gift....................

My friend Delphine moved into her new ( very old) cottage here in the village today......she loves quirky vintage treasures so I am making her a batch of special housewarming gifts. I simply have to include this little treasure I found this morning!

A children`s game where you have to wiggle the two little tin mice into their cage................

I`m going to tell her it`s a "mousewarming" gift!!

I am feeling much better today and there are so many brocantes tomorrow I don`t know where to start.......let me at them mes Belles!

Form an orderly queue please!!!!

I have always said that when I eventually 'pop my clogs' and head for that big brocante in the sky I want my ashes to be scattered on the mill wheel at Isle sur la Sorgue in Provence! (My textile archive, of course, would then be up for grabs too!)

When my brocante addiction started some 28 years ago, I would drive my trusted old van  ( named Horace) all the way south to Provence from the UK every two weeks or so to search out and buy the most amazing treasures. Back then it was old chateau treasure heaven - and I would always be able to pack Horace to the gunnels, bursting with pair upon pair of 18th and 19th century chateau curtains, sacks full of huge tassels and beautiful passementerie trims.  Other dealers would say "We knew you were in Isle Sorgue as we saw Horace"!! I would drive back to the UK, sell the lot almost immediately and set off again a few weeks later.

 I enjoyed spending some wonderful times there, made  fabulous friends and can still remember  most of the really special items that I found  there.
There is still nothing to match having a breakfast of fresh coffee, freshly baked baguette and fresh apricots sitting next to the water wheel in the warm morning sunshine.

As the years progressed Isle sur la Sorgue became more trendy as an antique hotspot - and the prices rose quite dramatically as a result. So..... my truffling went further afield but, if I was in the area, I simply had  to drive through and stop for off for a cafe just because I love it so much. So that`s where you`ll eventually find me going round and round for ever in the Provence sunshine!

So, why am I taking about "popping off" and why have I been so quiet this week?
Last weekend I started to ache and my ribs and back became quite painful. Monday it became a little worse and I made a doctors appointment for Thursday.  I awoke at 3am on Wednesday morning with so much pain in my chest and back that I could not take a deep breath, so off we went to the emergency department at Valogne hospital.

 Two years ago I suffered a slight "wobble off" at a brocante which resulted in two weeks in hospital and the insertion of a heart stent - so any pain I experience around the chest is always a panic! ( and yes...simply-chateau is bionic!!).

So, I had a full check! The ECG was clear ( phew!), lungs x-ray clear ( another phew), blood tests clear and no reason was evident save that the cause must have been muscular. We got back home at 7am.

 I don`t remember lifting anything heavy but then it suddenly came to me. Last Saturday morning I put on and danced to the " Salsa & Charleston dance work out for dummies"  tape here in the cuisine. Frou frou was here from Paris and laughed so much she couldn`t speak - and said I looked like someones Grandma dancing at a wedding!!!

I am obviously built for truffling out textiles and not for tripping the light fantastic! Three days later I still cannot sleep lying down flat because of the pain and have to sit up to sleep like on old owl! That`ll teach me!!!

So if you forget the rush for the queue for the textile archive I`ll forget all about that dance tape!  If you go to the bottom of this page there is a little video to accompany the music that shows you how to do the Charleston................................actually............no.....perhaps not mes belles!!

Bon weekend and I shall be truffling out treasures at eye level this weekend and anything hidden below a stand will have to stay there!!

Vide Jardin.............

Whist I sat listing my Ebay auctions yesterday afternoon I saw the same mouse (which I mentioned in my previous blog) casually womble across the cuisine floor. No rush, no panic, just a casual amble! He disappeared behind the armoire whilst I must have broken his ear drums screaming!


We moved the armoire....well no.... that`s a lie! There was no "we" involved as I stood by an escape door just in case he was a ninja mouse with a flick knife! And behind the armoire? Nothing, no sign of him at all so I relaxed and assumed he had found his way through the garden door. I went back to my computer.


Twenty minutes later he caught my eye again slowly sauntering back to the armoire! So as much as I didn`t want this cheeky souris in the house I didn`t want him to have a terrible ending at the hands of the Baron! So.... I fastened the Baron`s cat flap shut just in case he should hear the commotion ( and screams) and decide to come back into the kitchen to finish him off! We did catch him, ( well, Mark did);  he didn`t put up a fight and he was placed  gently in the hedge outside - and well away from the Baron!

 So the current results of the vermin games:-    Mouse... 1 The Baron... Nil.


May Day here always means many wonderful brocantes, so it was up early so as to fit in as many as possible. Most brocantes are also called "Vide greniers",  "Vide" meaning to "empty or to clear out"  "grenier" meaning "attic". But, today, we also had a "Vide Jardin" to visit at a local chateau that is being restored. We left this one until last knowing there would probably not be any vintage treasures but I was still desperate to get into the grounds of Le Chateau de Sebeville which I have been watching as the restoration work progressed.

It had been left derelict since the 1930s so when the new owner purchased it some ten years ago he must have been very brave indeed. It was built in 1720s for one of Napoleon`s generals and has had many subsequent owners including a Prince but, as the years progressed and following the French revolution, it fell into a very sad state. How wonderful it's been to watch it slowly coming back to life. The restoration is amazing and must be at massive expense as everything is being handworked and replaced exactly as it should be with real craftsmen working to old methods.

There were a handful of charming stands of plants for sale and I did succumb to a divine  climbing rose that the vendor told me had the most amazing scent so, hopefully, I can make it grow around the doorway eventually.

The craftsman who has replaced the parquet flooring in the chateau had a stand to exhibit his work

I could have brought home a chicken

I could have brought home a rabbit

And I SO wanted to bring this huge guy home but he was only visiting with his owners!

So instead we settled for a cafe and a crepe being prepared in the newly restored old stables

And sat out on the chateau lawns under a parasol to enjoy the atmosphere.

I was told that chateau is not going to be a public building but a private home for the new owner , his wife and their four children. I am so glad we took time to take the chance to visit as it may not be open publically again but I can still look from the lane as I pass by.
Wonder if they would like a mouse as a housewarming gift?