June 25, 2011

La Manche Encore

We are in La Manche, near the English Channel, where the Normans are proud of their heritage.

Here we are with the Normandy flag proudly displayed in front of our chambre d'hotes (bed & breakfast)

We started the morning with a “vide grenier” – a seasonal village-wide empty-your-attic event where you can find anything from World War I ammunition shells transformed into vases to worn out dolls, old suitcases, and 1980’s jewelry. Not at all fruitful for us, but fun to see how the French do their own kind of garage sale.

While driving to our first destination of the day, we came across an elderly gentleman cutting the grass around his cow pasture. Why use a weed whip when you can use a nineteenth century hand forged iron scythe?

Along with sixteen wonderful furniture pieces (a record for French Metro Antiques in one day), we came across a great selection of 18^th century copper not far from Villedieu-les-Poeles, the city that has been producint artisan made copper for over five hundred years.

We also found a late nineteenth century marriage globe still holding the orange blossom laurel wreath worn by a bride on her wedding day. It rests on an elaborate bronze stand decorated with love birds, mirrors, and a red velvet pillow which originally displayed the couple’s wedding rings. An interesting note: the number of mirrors on this exquisite piece indicates the number of children the married couple hoped to have. Whew! Quite a few mirrors!