Le Truc (the trick) to the Bistrot Look

There is nothing more pleasurable than sitting at a table outside a bistrot in town and people watching especially when I'm in one of my favourite places, Paris. There is something so romantic about the café culture that originated from from this beautiful city and the bistrot (or bistro... I'm never sure which way to spell it but prefer the aesthetics of the word with a t for some bizarre reason!) itself that started life there.

I think this is why I love of bistrot furniture by manufacturers such as Thonet, Fischel, Baumann and Mundus & Kohn and adore the sinuous lines of their bentwood creations in particular the art nouveau designs from the belle époque.

Recently I have been on the lookout for some original vintage bentwood chairs (you can recognise them by their patina and by the maker's label under the seat that will hopefully still be there). I own four at the moment, two by Thonet and two by Mundus & Kohn and have, to my dismay, recently seen the prices rocket.

A few years back they were considered little more than firewood and many of these evocative creations tragically finished their days on a bonfire or in a damp old barn slowly delaminating.

One of my Thonet chairs from the Belle Epoque period

From time to time I catch a tantalising glimpes of them in a movie or period drama and have come to the conclusion that the majority of the remaining survivors have probably been stockpiled in props departments of film studios and theatres.

Unfortunately the few chairs I have seen for sale in my part of France usually have caned seats which is so expensive to have redone that I am loathed to buy one.  The others, quelle horreur, seem to have been irrevocably vandalised by paint (for some reason puce seems to be la couleur préférée for these ill fated chairs!)

I did however make a fab purchase last week in La Rochelle of an original 1940s bistrot table with a cast iron base and brass banding around the top.  We paid quite a lot for it (80€) but we needed a small table for the corner of our living room so that Spike and myself could enjoy a meal while watching TV without having to eat off of our laps. With two dogs, one of them a very greedy beagle, we found that we were often wolfing down our food in order to finish before the inevitable splash of Oscar's drool hit the floor.

The bistrot table sitting happily with chairs by Mundus and J & J Kohn Ltd.

My wonky hat & coat stand

With our super little new table we can now eat at a blissfully leisurely pace with the peace of mind that if we take our eyes off our meal for a couple of seconds there won't be a podgy little hound launching himself at our plates. Jake, our other more sensible dog does not have such bad manners unless there is cheese involved in which case wouldn't trust him entirely either!

Another piece of bistrot furniture that I'm particularly proud of is my bentwood hat and coat stand.  I bought it when we first moved to France from a massive brocante in Marsac in the Charente region and although it is in a bit of a distressed state I love it all the same.  It takes pride of place in our kitchen for use when guests come over to visit otherwise it is left bare. Bistrot furniture is not only beautiful but durable and functional and I believe even as trends come and go it never really goes out of style.