Metro Station

Safe Landing

Our arrival in France this morning was met with six inches of snow already on the ground. A magical blanket of white covers the French landscape on this sleepy Sunday.


Our first task upon arrival this morning was to fulfill the wish list of French Metro’s restoration team. Waxes, polishes, stains, and other secret potions of the woodworker can be found in a generations-old shop, Produits Dugay, in... View full article →

I love France in the winter, when it's snowing!

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Forging On

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Village to Village...

Our September buying trip was a twenty-five day trek through countless villages in four different regions of France:  Normandy, Brittany, la Touraine, and l'Ile de France.  Every region of France is unique with its own traditions and culinary specialties,

its own architecture, 

and of course, its own charm.

Each French village has its unique personality that gives its inhabitants a sense of belonging--one that's been passed down through the generations. They all share in common familiar destinations that are part of the fabric of everyday life:

The nearby farm...

The local castle...

The weekly market...

The public park...

as well as the central church and the bustling cafes.

Our container from France has just arrived, and our doors are closed starting Friday, November 24th while we unpack!  From the villages of France to your own homes, the journey these treasures make in finding their place in the next generation is always such a mysterious one.  We at French Metro look forward to showing you our latest finds when we re-open our doors on Friday, December 1st at 10:00 am.  

A Castle Tour of Brittany

A longtime dream of mine was to travel the region of Brittany and visit as many castles there as I could. On our recent trip to France this summer on the hunt for treasures for French Metro, I took the opportunity to slip away to Brittany for a couple weeks. After landing in Paris with my parents, Renee and Terry, we split ways and I took the first train to Rennes, the regional capital.

The Parlement de Bretagne in Rennes

First stop on my castle tour was the medieval fortified village of Dinan where I stayed in a house from the year 1816 in the heart of the village. The building was from the same time period as our 1816 vaisselier from Brittany.

House from 1816

Street View of Dinan

Medieval Archway in Dinan

One of my ultimate destinations, the village of Dinan, was the home of one of the greatest French knights to have ever lived, Bertrand du Guesclin. Knowing he had never lost a battle and become the Constable of France, I had to make this stop.

Statue of Bertrand du Guesclin

The medieval village boasts a small chateau and is one of few heritage sites in France that maintains a complete encirclement of medieval walls.

Chateau of Dinan

Gatehouse into Dinan

View of the Walls

View of the Walls from the Chateau

My next stop was the chateau of Vitre, another medieval fortress first constructed in the 11th century.

The castle also included a lovely little chapel that was beautifully sculpted on the outside.

From there I went to the Chateau of Josselin, built at a strategic point on the Oust river. The current chateau was built in 1370 and still houses the same family. An incredible chateau with a fully furnished interior and lush green spaces.

Exterior of the Chateau of Josselin

Inside the Walls of Josselin and View of the Residence

Inside was this stunning Louis XV console table.

An absolutely amazing library and fireplace!

Greenspaces within the Walls

Up next, Combourg, once the home of celebrated French writer Chateaubriand. An imposing structure centered in the middle of a large park, this chateau had on display a mummified cat, once believed to have been buried alive within the walls in the Middle Ages as a superstition to keep out evil spirits.

Chateau of Combourg

From there it was off to the coast toward the port of Brest, a former haven for corsaires in the 17th and 18th centuries. In Brest I visited the chateau that guards the harbor, now a naval museum and still an active Naval base. I tried to get a glimpse of the chateau from the same perspective as our painting in the shop of the chateau, but unfortunately the area was restricted.

View of the Castle from the Port

View of the walls looking down at the spot where I could have had the same vantage point as our painting.

Here's a look inside the walls of the chateau before entering the museum.

An impressive 14 foot high sculpture

A very large bust originally decorating the Naval Academy

The chateau of Kerjean was an unexpected find in the countryside, but one of my favorite visits. Built in the 15th and 16th centuries, this small manor house  was surrounded by a 16th century star fort.

Facade of the Chateau of Kerjean

Interior Courtyard

Entrance into the Surrounding Star Fort

Corner Bastion of the Fort

Inside, a variety of 17th century regional Breton furniture was on display that reminded me of our 1631 coffer desk in the shop.

Breton Lit Clos or "Closed Bed"

17th Century Coffer 

They also had a coffer dated 1501.

The last stop was the Chateau of the Dukes of Brittany in Nantes. Inside was an extensive museum filled with artifacts showcasing the Breton region and the history of the city.

Entrance to the Chateau

Tapestry from the Time of Francois I

Regional Breton Oddities

 

Painting of a young Breton woman in regional dress

A set of enormous scales measuring at least 5 feet wide

17th Century Marine Coffer

18th Century Vignette

19th Century model of the Bastille carried around during the national holiday.

Truly a dream journey, I feel fortunate to have visited these seven castles from the medieval and renaissance periods.

Summer 2021 in France

Ten weeks?  Yes...making up for lost time.  French Metro Antiques spent the summer in France and what a glorious summer it was!  Terry, Harrison, and I arrived in Paris on June 9th, the first day France reopened to Americans with proof of vaccination.  White cards in hand, we were in!  Harrison immediately hopped on a train for a ten day vacation in Brittany, while Terry and I picked up our rental car and headed out.

 

The first ten days were non-stop work--antiques, antiques, antiques--and reconnecting with our French colleagues…

”Ah vous etes la?  Superbe!. Vous allez bien?  Et la famille?"

All our friends were so surprised and so happy to see us, and the feeling was mutual.  Transatlantic friendships over the past twenty years cultivated through a passion for antiques are unbreakable, even by a pandemic.  

 

 

 

 

We quickly got into the rhythm.  Shop, eat, shop, eat, shop, eat!

 

With ten weeks ahead of us, Terry and I adopted a new pace.  Time to work but also time to take in France at a more leisurely pace.

 

Harrison soon rejoined us for another ten days of work. And we headed south to hit the professional markets for antique dealers.

 

 

 

Three weeks of work behind us, and it was time for a real vacation.  Terry and I took off to spend three weeks in the Loire Valley, lodged in a fifteenth century manor house in the city of Blois.

Castle visits, garden walks, and sparkling Loire white wines...

 

Next, a week on the Atlantic in the city of Biarritz near the Spanish border.  Amazing views from our apartment, and the best food market in all of France!

Our park bench right in front of our apartment in Biarritz.

A day in Saint Jean de Luz led us to a dear friend of one of Renee's former French students who was overseeing a group of artists creating giant puppets for the Ravel festival of music.

 

 

Plus we found a very special eighteenth century copper piece nearby for French Metro!

 

Next, a week in the Tarn, a new region for us where we were home based in Albi. 

 

A complete fluke was meeting by chance our son Elliot’s friend, Tom, in a café in Toulouse fifteen minutes before he was getting married. Years earlier, Tom had come to Fayetteville for Elliot’s wedding.  So surprised at the serendipitous encounter, we were ecstatic to witness our first French wedding at the Toulouse City Hall.

 

 

Next stop was La Rochelle where we were lodged on a large sailboat in the port.

 

 

And finally a week in Honfleur in Normandy on the English Channel.

Renee and her French high school pen pal, Claudine, celebrated 50 years of friendship.  Two fifteen year old girls still keeping in touch!

And last, a visit with dear friends near Rouen where it was pure tourism and catching up.

I have traveled to France over fifty times in my lifetime, and this was my longest stay since my studies in Dijon in college.  So what was the best thing about this trip?  Working and playing in the culture I love so much with my best friend.

 

Cam's First Buying Trip

Finally–my first buying trip as part of the French Metro team! I patiently waited my turn when Harrison, Renee, and Terry traveled to France last summer and this January was my time! We arrived in Paris on January 9th and I got to spend three weeks traveling all through Normandy and the Loire Valley in search of unique antiques to fill our shop!

My first thought (after antiques, of course!) was about… food. I had to have snails and foie gras, two essentials when traveling in France!

We even got to celebrate Terry’s birthday at one of our favorite restaurants!

Then, it was off to the hunt! 

We found several pieces including a great razorback to bring back for our hog fans!

Louis XVI Marquetry Game Table

Set of Six Louis XVI Chairs

 

Pair of Art Deco Nightstands

Large Artisan-made Birdcage

Hand Carved Oak Vitrine c. 1880

Large Iron Key Sign

Brass Drum

Louis Philippe Secretary

Painted Louis XVI Settee

Pair of 18th Century Stucco Friezes

Zinc Window

Mid-Century Brass and Glass Bar Cart

 

In between shopping, we were able to visit the cathedral in Chartres..

As well as the city of Rouen with its famous clock, the Gros Horloge.

At last, we ended the trip with a visit to my brother Alexander’s new house in Blois!

The landmark stairwell Denis Papin in Blois changes its steps multiple times a year.

 Shipping issues around the world have hit French Metro as well, but our spirits are up.  Our container from our January buying trip is finally here! We will be closed Monday, June 6th through Friday, June 10th while we unpack and will reopen our doors on Saturday, June 11th. Hope to see you then!

Back to France!

It's time for another buying trip!  We skipped the hot weather in France this summer, and we are headed across the pond next week.  September in France is a fabulous month.  The kids are back in school, the tourists are gone, and the weather is fantastic!  It is also grape harvest season so a detour to one of the wine regions may be in order as well.  This trip I will have a different traveling companion.  For the last ten years, my son Alexander has been my constant traveling companion on our buying trips to France, but he is off to new adventures in Ecuador as a foreign service officer for the U.S. State Department.  We are so proud of him!  

Terry, my life companion for the past thirty-seven years, will be making this next buying trip with me.  Although the two of us have traveled thousands of kilometers together through France, both for pleasure and for business, he has often been the one to stay home holding down the fort (meaning home, job, shop, and children).  We are excited to be working in France together again.  

We will be in France from September 5th to the 28th.  Let us know if you have anything on your wish list and follow us on Facebook as we post about our latest adventures.  

Now's the time to take advantage of our complimentary custom shopping service too.  Complete your detailed wish list below, and we'll email you photos of pieces we find in France that could meet your needs.  Plus, all custom purchases qualify for a 10% discount.  You will have your own custom shopper in France.

 

French Metro Musings

For the past sixteen years, French Metro Antiques has been traveling to France at least twice a year to seek and acquire beautiful pieces of furniture, art, and decorative objects to bring back to our clients.  January buying trips mean new arrivals in the spring, and June buying trips bring a new container to our shop in the fall.  So on January 9^th, Harrison and I took our usual trip, looking forward to the hunt as well as to seeing our old friends and colleagues in the business of antiques. 

After a successful buying trip, we were back in the Charles De Gaulle airport nearly three weeks later, and Covid19 had just begun to rear its ugly head.  We saw some travelers wearing masks, and the word was out.  We arrived safely back in Fayetteville on January 27^th.  Quite unaware of what was to come, we went back to work to our routine—tie up the transportation details in France, organize the transatlantic shipping, notify the customs broker, and create a marketing plan for our April arrivals.  We set out to create emails for our spring shipment and decided on a theme of capturing what we as humans do in our leisure time.  What are the simple pleasures of life that contribute to a rich life?  What pieces in our new collection spoke to that?  With our photographer, we set up vignettes in our shop for inspiration and let the creative juices flow. Then the world began to change.  We, among all of our friends, family, and our whole community found ourselves at home, sequestered, sheltered, distanced.  Our shop closed, many of our friends’ businesses closed.  So where does French Metro fit in?  What about this shipment arriving in April?  Do we move forward with our usual routine?  One thing we know is you can’t stop a ship on the water from delivering a container.  Once it has set sail, a shipment is on the way.  And so our container sailed in February and arrived last week. 

Our French Metro team enlisted some trusted friends to help us unload, and then Harrison, Daniel, and I set to work—unpack, clean, restore, and arrange a shop that may not be open for weeks.   Work is good for the soul, and being surrounded by beautiful things that we love reminds us that although the world is full of uncertainty, there are things that restore our spirits.  For us, one of those things is beauty.  So Harrison shined and polished.  Daniel cleaned and restored.  And Renee priced and decorated with Harrison playing multiple roles, moving back and forth between the workshop and the showroom floor for decorating. 

 

The shop is closed, but we move forward.  Our photographer has been here photographing everything to put on our website, and you will see our latest arrivals online soon.  Our passion for all things French, our love of French history, culture, language, and antiques has not waned.  Our theme of leisure time and pastimes is more a propos than we could have anticipated.  To our clients, we hope you are safe and healthy.  Perhaps you are rediscovering hobbies while you are at home or finding new ones.  In some small way, we hope a little beauty from French Metro, if even only virtually, can give you a bit of respite as well.

Our Fall 2019 Shipment is here!

Autumn is around the corner, and our latest arrivals from our summer trip to France are here!  It was another successful buying trip, and this time Renee and Harrison were joined by brother Alexander and French son-in-law Nicolas as they made their way from the south of France to the north.  As always, French Metro will be closed this next week to unpack and will reopen our doors on Friday, August 30th at 10am.  Come see what's new or stay tuned to our website for our latest treasures from France in our Fall 2019 Collection!

 

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