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Another day in Normandy
Another wonderful day in this lovely part of Normandy that reminds of the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas. The weather is brrrrrrrrrrr! Not the usual sunny June we are used to on our summer trips to France.
A late nineteenth century decorative column from Alsace.
A 30” X 30” iron fire back boasting the heraldry of the French monarchy — a crown surrounded by fleur de lys.
A Napoleon III gold leafed...
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Antiques de Provence
We have reached the sunny south of France—warm days, cool nights, and muted colors of the earth. The musical Provençal accent charms us. Is that really French they are speaking?!
The quintessential Provençal piece is the panetière, an ornately carved piece which was either hung on the wall or was set on top of a pétrin, or dough table. The panetière was originally used to store bread. This one is...
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Running like a bull...after one-of-a-kind antiques!
The past two days in Provence have been non-stop shopping, up at 5:00 a.m., awake until 1:00 a.m., and running after antiques in between. And they say this is all glamour! It has been worth the effort though. We have been finding beautiful nineteenth century artwork and wonderful, unique small items.
A nineteenth century still life. Oil on wood in its original gold frame.
A very rare find—a...
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La Manche
Off to a La Manche this morning, almost to the Brittany border. We made a quick stop along the national road and found this stunning Napoleon III papier maché tilt top table with exquisite oil painting and mother of pearl inlay. Renee has an obsession about Napoleon III mother of pearl---Stay tuned to see if this table makes it to the shop!
A tiny little village in La Manche with a monumental...
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La Manche Encore
We are in La Manche, near the English Channel, where the Normans are proud of their heritage.
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| 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...
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Arriving in the Seine-Maritime.
One of our great finds today was this sparkling crystal chandelier, dripping with prisms.
Unless you’d rather have an entire 17th century Baroque altar, which could be yours for a cool $300,000. Believe it or not, we found this available to buy today.
After a long day of driving, we arrived in the city of Rouen. We strolled through the medieval quarter past the city’s famous clock that stretches...
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An Extraordinary Musical Find
We wrapped things up in the north today before leaving for the Mediterranean coast. We found quite a few interesting accessories…
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Bronze dog inkwell |
But our BIG find of the day was a early twentieth century bookmatched rosewood baby grand piano!!! It’s a true work of art made by Niendorf, a German maker famous for the quality of its cases which contributes greatly to the richness of its sound....
Southward Bound
Today we geared up for the next leg of our journey which started with a Ryanair flight from Beauvais airport (1.5 hours north of Paris) to Beziers in the south of France. If you’ve never heard of Ryanair, it is one of several dozen no-frills discount airlines that have popped up in Europe in the last ten years (think Southwest or JetBlue). And if you’ve never flown any of these airlines, let me...
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In the Languedoc
The City of Beziers is about the size of Fayetteville, Arkansas with 70,000 inhabitants. Somehow it seems much larger. The downtown is bustling with commerce and the preservation of the historic buildings and central square is impressive. Allées of centuries-old sycamore trees line the square where the city market is held.
Beziers is in the Languedoc, an area just west of Provence where...
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Beziers Market
Today there was a large antique market in Beziers. When we arrived at the gates, where buyers and sellers alike were waiting to get in, we could hear French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Polish, Dutch, German, and some languages we didn’t recognize. Between the two of us, Alexander and I speak five languages, so we were in polyglot heaven. At 8 a.m. sharp, the gates opened and we all rushed in. Here...
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