The walled garden.................

Finally I have been able to commence along with help of course!!!

The site was prepared......

 

The footings went down................

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally the first layers of stone were  carefully chosen and placed......

 

 

 

I am adamant that I shall build it and as we speak it is 3 layers high with rain having stopped me in my tracks!

 

Admittedly I am the only wall builder that kneels on a velvet cushion, has the concrete mixed for me and has the large stones lifted for me!!

 

In my mind I have it planted out with lush plants with old cast iron grilles and statues peeping out in the foliage......Watch this space!!!

 

A la prochaine mes belles

xxxxxx

 

A good feeling x 3

Three good feelings today and it`s not even lunch time..........

No. 1 The best things come in little parcels so "MERCI" to Madame Besnier at the patisserie!

No.2  When we bought the chateau there was an old dog kennel in the garden that was whisked away by one of the relatives the day before we signed the paperwork. Five years later has finally returned home and is being guarded now by my guard pig! 

No.3  And talking of being "finally home" we had a wonderful email this morning from the grandson of the Baruch family mentioned in the letters yesterday. Oh the power of the internet!!  He is delighted to hear of the letters and we are just as delighted to be passing them to him. Apparently there are a couple of books being written that are including his family story from the 1930s/40s.

Three reasons to be cheerful!!

A la prochaine mes belles
xx

The threads of time.....

At the brocante at the weekend I found a huge brown paper parcel tied with paper string that contained the most wonderful batches of linen thread. All unused and with the maker`s labels....delicieux!

At the bottom of the bag was a batch of letters and cards all written from a  German Jewish clothing company or factory owner in Liverpool to Monsieur Louis Leffray at his mill in Coulaines.

Written in the late 1930s the letters are very evocative of a time of great worry and unrest as the war began to unfold.

If you click on the images they should become larger on another page for you.

Just one of the letters for you to read.

I am hoping to find a member of the Baruch family to whom I can pass the letters.

A la prochaine mes belles
xxxx

Get up now this minute.......

One hundred and fifty three nasturtiums planted weeks ago and 80 have appeared. Mais oui...I have counted them!

So where are the other 73? Lounging under the soil refusing to get out of bed?

Well I won`t have it...get up now....get up immediately and show your faces! Perhaps they have been a field mouse breakfast in which case I will find a huge bloated mouse unable to run in the hedge after gulping down 73 pea sized seeds.

Along with 15 friends this year we are having a pumpkin growing competition. Already the skulduggery has begun and we have one couple starting their specimens in a hot bed, some bringing in enormous specimen seeds from abroad, some with secret techniques and then there is me with three sad seeds lurking in a pot.

I am an impatient gardener as you may already have decided. Unable to wait to see if anything was happening today, I had a bit of a poke about in the soil and saw that one has a root so I buried again quickly! I may even have a specimen on judging day!

This weekend sees us once again at the 6 kilometres of brocante through the woods....let me at them I say!!! The first year we visited this venue, I rushed up the 6 kilometre route in case I missed anything as everyone arrived. Then rushed the 6 kilometres back as the first line of people had then unpacked.

Then I did the whole thing again slowly leaving no stone unturned on the whole 12 kilometres.

Then I made the mistake of walking the 6 kilometres up again and wanted to be airlifted back as my feet were killing me! I got back to the hotel and lay on the bed with two face flannels soaked in cold water on my feet!

Again on the first year at this fair, a huge van arrived that was packed to bursting with items cleared out of an old upholsters atelier that had been closed up since the early 1900s.

The seller simply stood throwing huge piles of period textiles into a heap. I sat in that mountain like a pig in a truffle patch gathering treasures. I truffled in it so much that I lost my phone in the pile and we had to get someone to ring the number and it was like finding a needle in a haystack!

SO who knows what will turn up this year. The weather forecast is good and we will start walking at 4am by torchlight as the first sellers unpack.

But I do feel I deserve a good haul after what happened yesterday.

Truffling with Frou Frou we came across a huge charity store filled with all sorts. We checked out their department for old textiles and were quite disappointed to find nothing at all.

Then we found a separate room filled to the gunnels with tutus, velvet tailcoats, ballet shoes, lace skirts, corsets and various costumes made of period textiles.

 We started grabbing huge piles to take to the counter and then we glanced up and saw it. A wall filled with antique feather angel wings. We took the lot down and made our way to the counter only to be told....."non mesdames"....these costumes are for carnival hire only and not for sale.

 Noooooooooooooooo!!!! I will never recover!

But, I still have a serious case of brocantitis and would have it no other way!

Hopefully I will be showing you a good hoard on Monday mes belles
xxxxx

Hindsight..............

Thirty years ago when I used to truffle the flea markets and village vide greniers in Provence I used to come home with crate upon crate of these old insect catchers.

I thought nothing of the huge piles of amethyst and clear wavy glass bells I came home with. If only I had known that today I would be over the moon just to find two clear ones
But then hindsight is such a wonderful thing!

Being listed tonight....

A la prochaine mes belles.....
xxx

The petite theatre....

We finally got around to opening the package for the toy theatre. It had been delivered by train as a Christmas present for some very lucky children.

IT is being listed tonight and here are a few photographs....

 

 

A wonderful heirloom piece.

A la prochaine mes belles
xxx

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!!