We got back, totally exhausted, at the weekend, from our latest buying trip. We took a van load of French furniture and antique chandeliers, bought on our last trip, to our courier in the UK ready for delivery to our UK buyers. We were just 24 hours in the UK to keep ferry costs to a minimum which involves getting a ferry at around midnight – yawn, and making sure we get a ferry back before midnight the next evening. Of course we had to stop off and top up on the essentials you can’t get in France: Baked Beans, HP sauce, Ryvita, decent peanut butter and Kettle chips to mention just a few. Oh and of course Simmers Abernethy biscuits which are available in Home Bargains at a ridiculously cheap price or Waitrose at a rather larger price. They are a sweet Scottish biscuit, delicious as they are but we love them with cheese and smothered in butter….preferably French butter which is so much better than the butter available in the UK. Whenever we get visitors here in France they always comment on how good the butter is…ah, the simple pleasures. Anyway, we have wandered off onto the subject of food which I am afraid is quite common. This post is supposed to be about our last buying trip!
We took one of our usual routes back down to the south of France taking in some of our favourite dealers and brocante’s in Belgium and France. Of course we had forgotten that November 1st is a bank holiday in France and Belgium when everyone visits the graves of their loved ones to lay flowers – traditionally Chrysanthemum’s.
Fortunately we found a couple of flea markets – the first one was in Belgium before crossing over the border. We certainly found a few treasures: some un-used 1960’s Communion cake favours/toppers found in the storeroom of a long closed shop in Sint Niklaas (allegedly the home of the real Santa), then there was a huge 19th century brass door handle with a star shaped back – the sort that goes in the centre of a front door (I’m not sure I’m looking forward to cleaning it as it is black), a tiny stove top waffle making iron, two hand carved decorative German bread boards/platters, a Flemish dragon chandelier and much more. All coming up for sale soon!
The van was as usual laden down with our finds, see the photo above – several wardrobes, a huge sideboard, a dining table, some bedside cabinets and a fabulous huge glazed front bookcase.