For the love of french furniture

As promised, and better late than never I wanted to do a post on the French furniture I photographed when I visited France in the spring time.  As the owner of Vintique Tree and because I have a serious thing about furniture, especially upholstery the interiors of the French Chateaus' we visited were of huge interest.  I thought that the furniture and upholstery in the French houses was much more accessible than in the country houses of Britain, here everything is roped off at a distance, whereas you can really get up close and feel the age of the French pieces! Or at least I could. I love seeing a warn chair or the patina on wood, I really wish I could get the history of what the furniture has seen by just touching it!

I like the simplicity of English furniture, the majority being carved clean straight lines, but I can't compare it to the curves and flamboyancy of the French furniture. From the stunning carved sideboards that take up a whole wall  to the crazy amount of braid they put on their upholstery, it just wins hands down in my eyes!

Anyway enough gushing, here are just some of the few favourites I took whilst visiting:

French Road Trip

France is a beautiful country, this is an absolute fact.  At the start of May we packed up our  Vintique Tree van and embarked on our French road trip adventure.  After visiting Paris many times we were ready to explore a different region of France so we took the Eurostar to Calais and travelled down the coast road following our plotted route on our map and stopping off where ever we fancied along the way. All I can say is that it was completely brilliant, the sense of adventure tripping along the white cliffs by the sea and getting lost in the depths of countryside with no other car for miles was just fantastic.

We stopped in a different location every night and met some lovely b&b owners along the way, ate too many croissants for breakfast and picnicked on fresh baguettes and pear jam picked up fresh from a local bakery everyday. I can't believe how much I yearn to be back there since we got home!

It is hard to get across how beautiful it was in pictures.  When we visited the châteaus' I took so many pictures of interiors and furniture, it was so inspiring in terms of antiques, colours and upholstery, but there will be more about this on a separate post. 

  

One of the prettiest b&b rooms I have stayed in for a long time!

Harbour at Honfleur

The beach at Deauville, I would love to go back there in the height of summer to see all the multicolour parasols open, it really had the old glamour feeling of a traditional beach resort, loved it!!

In France the World Wars are still fresh in the memory, there are signs, statues and stories of how France and the allies struggled and finally conquered. This was at the American war graves by Omah Beach, I felt very emotional here, it was so peaceful and a beautiful spot, but this is just one grave yard out of the hundreds around France, the crosses of the fallen seemed to go on forever. On the positive side, at least all of these brave men and woman are remembered and will never be forgot. This was a beautiful final resting place for many so far from home.

Next up was Mont St Michel, now a tourist destination, but you can still really get the sense of history in this place...

The Chateau we called home for one night!

Fleeing Jewish people ran through the grand dining room of this chateau in WW2 to escape to the other side of the river which was still Free France.

Louis famous hunting lodge, Chambord

This Chateau was the inspiration for the castle in the Tin tin Books

Claude Monet Garden

Selling at Europe's largest antiques and Collectors fair - IACF Newark

Newark is around an hours drive from home and is Europe's largest antiques and collectors fair. I can honestly say even though it has been going for years, before I got into the antiques business I had no idea what I had been missing out on!

Even if you are not a dealer or collector, there are so many things to see and buy to make your house unique and stand out from the crowd. You can pick up furniture for half the cost of the big retail stores, and the furniture is better made and has a history you just cannot find on the high street!

The Vintique Tree stall was full of treasures and finds from our sourcing trips but by the end of the fair a lot of our things had found new homes!

Treasure hunting at the antiques fairs

It was a busy week last week of selling, sourcing and very early mornings! When the alarm goes off at 3.15am all you want to do is snuggle back under the duvet but I must admit, I love watching the sun come up with the anticipation of wondering what you are going to sell/find!

First up was Malvern Antiques and Flea Market, this fair is a great day out with plenty to see and buy, from trinkets for a couple of quid to fine antiques. Depending on the weather this fair is HUGE, and you need to get there super early as not queue to get in, one customer told me it had taken them half an hour to get in!

We were selling at Malvern this time, and when we arrived around 5.30am the fog was thick and swirling, but it didnt take long for the sun to come out, stock always looks nicer in the sunshine!

Here are a few snaps from the Malvern Flea, iphone pictures sorry!

Then we packed all up and Tuesday was treasure hunting at Lincoln show ground.  This fair is another two dayer, The first day is trade and costs £20 to get in, there are a lot more stalls on the Monday compared to the Tuesday. It costs £5 to get in on the second day, but there is still so many stalls to look at so we definitely thought it was worth the visit!

Then finally I got all loaded up again and spent two days selling at Europe's largest antiques fair in Newark Lincolnshire, this is a fantastic day out, but really you need to spend the two days there to make sure you see everything! I have featured this fair in a separate blog I took a lot of pictures!!