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Busy Grape Picking

29th October 2018

The grape picking season is well underway in France although our region, the Correze, is not known for wine-making and there are very few vineyards. Indeed the Correze is known more for it’s Limousin cattle, chestnuts and for apple growing. Most of the wine produced in the Correze is in the south around Brive, now more famous for it’s rugby club which has a large number of English players. As well as these wines the region is known for Vin Paille which translates as straw wine, so called because the grapes are left to dry on straw matting until around

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Just Back

28th October 2018

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,

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Scandinavian Bureau Cupboard

28th October 2018

In a brocante in northern France last week we discovered a fabulous and very unusual Scandinavian bureau/cupboard. It has a very plain, flat front embellished with ornate faux hinge covers. The hinges have an almost oriental look to them. It’s driving me mad at the moment because I know the maker – a Finnish company, but I can’t remember the name. We have a corner bar cupboard by the same maker in our lounge with exactly the same decorative hinges. They are really quite rare pieces as the company in question were better known for making timber buildings but diversified

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Mystery Item

28th October 2018

These are fun items – do you know what they are? In the 1900’s plastic carrier bags didn’t exist – which is probably a good thing! In the upmarket stores your goods would be packed and wrapped in brown paper or paper marked with the stores name. The shop assistant would then tie the parcel closed with string or ribbon and one of these handles advertising the store would be hooked around the string at the top so that you could carry it safely. A little more classy that that 10p carrier bag but you do have to wait a

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House Hunting

27th October 2018

Sat in the UK looking at properties for sale in France on the internet you create an image in your head of some potentially fabulous homes. Often they are larger than you could afford in the UK, or they have lots of land, a well, barns and so much more. The reality when you view these properties is often very different as we discovered. ‘In need of renovation’ often means there is no electricity, if you are lucky there may be an outside toilet, usually no drainage and sometimes no roof! In France the estate agent usually takes you to

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