Brocante Vintage: April 2013

~ Friday 19^th April ~

After a few months of planning my first buying trip to Normandy the day had finally arrived! Bright eyed and bushy tailed I got out of bed to start getting everything ready. I must admit I had everything ready the night before with everyone’s clothes laid out in a neat pile. It was an early start – up at 5am and you can imagine having a 15month year old is not that easy. Having said that I was quite amazed at how well my little Ayla was, she ate up all her breakfast and even had room for some of my toast!

By 6.30am we were all packed up, the van was loaded up, passports, ticket, money – check! There was a sense of great expectation and I was very excited. It’s been some time since we went over to France since having Ayla, and...well, you know how it goes...

Two hours later we arrived promptly at the Ferry port and boarded. Ayla was very excited on board and was running around all over the place, at this point it hit me...there’s no way me or hubby are going to get any rest and the thought of a four hour ferry trip, and then a further hour drive to our first dealer made me somewhat anxious. Anyhow, Ayla did manage a small sleep of about 20mins only!

Once we arrived, we set straight off and arrived just in time to meet our first dealer. We walked up to her lovely little Brocante shop which was bursting at the seams with goodies. For me this was like being in a toy shop, surrounding by wonderful quirky objects. We quickly eyed up the items that we would purchase, agreed a price, loaded them all up into the van and then set off to her warehouse where she had even more stock. She showed us what she had and then left us to look around...as we sifted through everything we found some great items!

So a great start to a very long day and by now it was around 7pm, luckily for us we were invited to dinner at the dealer’s house where we were served a delicious homemade lasagne and salad, followed by a scrummy pear tart and lots of wine. Ayla even made a friend!

We then headed back to our B&B to check in for the night. Now I had seen the photo’s of this place online but the pictures did not do it justice...when we pulled up and drove down the long driveway with the sun just setting our mouths both dropped open, what a beautiful place!

After being greeted by the very charming lady of the manor Aude, who lived there with her husband and two children, we were shown to our room which was stunningly beautiful dressed up in typical French style. Huge shuttered windows and very tall ceilings enveloped us – hmm I could get used to this. But no time to waste, Ayla needed a bath and then bed as it was now 9pm and we needed to be up the next day for 6am...a quick feed, a lullaby and she was out like a light, leaving me to unpack and sort everything for the next day. That night we both felt very excited about what we could find the next day, I couldn’t sleep glancing at the clock which showed 3am...after that I finally feel asleep...zzzz

~ Saturday 20^th ~

And so after quite a bad night’s sleep, on my part anyway, I dragged myself up whilst hubby and Ayla slept a little more. I must admit I can be a bit 'military style' when on a trip like this, everything has to be organised and things have to be done to a timetable much to the dislike of my husband who has said it’s like living with a sergeant major! Once we were all up and dressed we headed down stairs where we were meet by the lovely Aude who had laid out the most delightful breakfast, hot croissants straight from the bakers, homemade jams, little almond cakes and coffee lots and lots of black coffee!!

Then off we set to our first Marché aux puces or Vide-Greniers which are like car boots in this country except of a much better quality. We arrived around 7.00am on a very cold and damp morning but within the first 30 minutes we had loaded up half the van and found some real bargains! After spending about two hours there we decided to head off to our next dealer which was about an hour’s drive and gave Ayla the opportunity to grab some well needed sleep. As we pulled up the yard was full with items, but it was not only when you get up close and personal do you realise that there really wasn’t anything here that we were after – it wasn’t great to be honest and he’s price tags were far too expensive, so we left with nothing apart from a tureen. The next dealer a few miles up the road was better and she had lots of items that we found would sell really well!

By this time it was now lunch time and we were invited to lunch with one of the dealers that we were booked in to see. The lunch was that of typical French cuisine – little slices of crisp bread with crab pâté, followed by home reared chicken eggs and homemade bread, then mushroom and onions tarts served with an artichoke paste and salad, lots of bread and wine, followed by homemade chocolate cakes, with lemon and pear tart, followed by espresso coffee... We were shown around her lovely shop and there were some really great items that we spotted but again too overpriced for what we were prepared to pay for something, so we left with nothing but food in our tummys.

After lunch we stopped off at another dealer’s brocante were we bought two matching pairs of M.O.D yes, Ministry of Defence lights. They are in a beautiful emerald green and are in magnificent order. We left there very happy as we knew we had found something quite special here.

The clock was ticking and we still had to cram in another 3 dealers to see but I could see that Ayla was getting quite upset and agitated so we decided that I would take her back to the B&B and settle her for the evening whilst Johnny went on to see the further 3 dealers. By now it was around 6.30pm and Johnny was feeling tired – bless him he did a really good job driving all day but unfortunately the next three dealers were all too overpriced and so nothing was purchased.

At around 9pm I saw Johnny driving up the driveway and as he came in he was greeted by Aude who invited him up to her attic to see if there was anything that she would like to sell to us. As this is a mansion you can imagine the size of the attic it was humongous and had lots fabulous items – unfortunately we just did not have enough room in our van so left with a lovely linen set only.

And so to bed we must go, it was now around 10.30pm – luckily little Ayla was fast asleep. We set our alarms for 5am as we needed to be at the next Vide-Grenier for 6.30am.

~ Sunday 21st ~

That night we slept better but the next morning Ayla just did not want to get up so we were a little late and ended up at the fair around 7.30am, but this worked in our favour as most of the stall owners did not start setting up until 8am so we didn’t miss much.

This was a really good fair, the best so far with lots and lots of items that immediately caught our eye. The weather was beautiful just right for truffling through items - it was lovely and warm with the sun shining through the trees as it was set within a park. It was a beautiful day and I certainly could get used to this...Ayla joked with the locals, pulling up her jumper and showing them all her little tummy, she was laughing and pointing at dogs as they went pass. By midday we were done and decided that the end of our trip was complete.

Feeling slightly sad that we will be leaving soon we had one final stop to make with our first dealer so we hit the road, along the way we called to make sure she was in but unfortunately we could not get through to her and so we had to abort that plan and head to the ferry port. On the way Ayla became quite poorly so we had to find a local chemist to give her some paracetemol which seemed to help. I’m so proud of my little angel, she did so well but I think towards the end my little pickle just wanted to get home.

We arrived at the port in good time so stopped off for lunch and by that I mean using what we had left in our trusty portable fridge. It was lovely sitting by the sea watching our ferry draw nearer and nearer.

After 4 hours on the ferry back home and keeping Ayla amused Johnny and I were at the end of our tether...we were so tired, we didn’t even noticed the time so when we went up to the cafeteria at 8pm and said ‘soup of the day please’ the man looked at us strangely and said ‘of the day, you know what time it is? Then we laughed and I said yes, more soup of the night! He didn’t get it but the French don’t really have that sense of humour that we Brits have...anyway he gave us the soup. When we saw the lights at Newhaven we felt a sigh of relief...Home time!!! I felt for Johnny as he now had a two hours drive back home to Bournemouth – what a trooper he is! We were the first off the ferry and headed straight home. It was now 9pm, Ayla was fast asleep, I tried to keep awake but just couldn’t, don’t you just hate it when you try and fight sleep! We arrived home at 11.30pm and didn’t even think about unpacking all the stuff we hit the sack like three skittles. Goodnight!

No rest for the wicked after only 6 hours sleep we were up at 6am ready to unpack the van – why so early? Well, the van we hired had to be back before 8am otherwise a charge of £50.00 is made. Once unpacked and stored Johnny dropped off the van and I continued to clean up some of the items.

We looked at all the items we had purchased and were happy with the majority of items. We can’t wait to go back for our next trip and are already looking to return for July. I have decided to keep back a few items for myself – well, you can’t go all that way and not have anything in return for all your hard work. So what did I keep? Firstly, I adore French tureens and am building up a collection...I have decided to sell two and keep these three...

I also found this wonderful little bust of two girls, I was going to sell this but I have just fallen in-love with them so have decided to keep. They are just adorable with their little plump faces and red cupid lips.

I have also been looking for these clay pots for a while and we did find quite a few to sell but I have kept back this little pot – am not sure where I will put this yet. Along with this a lovely glass bottle, these look great outdoors. They were once used to store wine in and were originally encased in a wicker basket as in the picture below, but I decided to take the wicker off to reveal the beautiful bottle.

Garden furniture is becoming a bit of obsession for me so to find this lovely metal chair which I adore as I just love the shape and style. I will use this in my bathroom to hold towels on or possible my bedroom.

I was so glad to have found this item! It’s an old ceramic water drinking fountain was fixed to the wall and was probably in the street in some old town no doubt. I will use this possibly in the garden mounted on a wall and fill it with plants. It is extremely heavy but I wouldn’t mind it in the house as a statement piece – we will see.

So what did we find then? Well, here are some pictures so if you are interested in any please contact me at brocante-vintage@hotmail.co.uk for prices, to arrange delivery or collection.

Itenery of items for sale

French Farmhouse Table image to come...

French Mannequin