A Tailor Made Château

Last weekend we visited a brocante that was just a little more special than the ones we attend. Generally in car parks, fields, villages or town squares I was especially keen to visit this particular one because it was being held in the grounds of a château.  My hope was that it would be a cross between The Antiques Roadshow and a summer garden party and I wasn't disappointed.

It was a bit of a chilly and overcast start to the day but it soon warmed up

The story behind Le Château de la Mercerie (translated as The Castle of Haberdashery) is very out of the ordinary because this grandiose façade is an illusion.  In 1924 two brothers, Alphonse and Raymond Réthoré, made their fortune from the textile industry and proceeded to purchase a modest manor (if there is such a thing).  Inspired by Versailles they then constructed an imposing and magnificent structure on the side.  Over the years they collected architectural treasures including paintings by Italian Masters, sculptures, delft tiles to create vast murals and, like Versailles, they commissioned a mirrored gallery. 

The château or folly that can be seen today was finally completed in 1970 only to fall into disrepair over the subsequent years. Luckily the local residents have taken up the baton to save this treasure and have been busy fund raising with this annual brocante being just one of many events held in the grounds.

The brother's additions to the original building are very long and virtually impossible to photograph in entirety so here is a photo I found that shows the whole thing

A work in progress as a new roof to one of the turrets is under construction.  If you had ever wondered how they made them well wonder no more.  I don't know why but I suddenly fancy an ice cream!

From this side you can see the original manor house

A beautiful view over the Charentaise countryside from behind the façade

I did a bit of treasure hunting myself that day (soon to be put on my Etsy shop) and thoroughly enjoyed having such a splendid backdrop to do a bit of haggling.

Antiquing in the Charentais Town of Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire

Last weekend there were a multitude of flea markets and antique fairs to choose from in our area.  However we've recently been stumbling across the same old stalls with the same old stock so we decided to visit a fair a little further afield for a change.

The sun was shining so we thought we would make a day of it and visit the large brocante at Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire then wander around the town itself to see if we could find somewhere for lunch (hooray!)

We arrived at the fair at around 11 o'clock and quickly realised that it would be a shopping trip of two halves.  The sun was relentlessly scorching, the brocante was big and we immediately knew that we had stumbled across a gem.  It was so refreshing to see some real antique stalls mixed in with the more affordable stalls set up by locals clearing their attics (vide greniers).  This meant that there was an eclectic mix of trucs in all price ranges.

A hot sunny day for the brocante at Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire

After about an hour or so of schlepping around in the heat we rushed back to the car with the first haul of goodies (sugar tongs, cheese dome, among other things) and then set off for centre ville to find a restaurant. We eventually found somewhere and I chose a lovely fresh salad followed by delicious îles flottantes (for those of you unfortunate enough to have never experienced this iconic French dessert it is basically Italian meringues floating on runny custard... heaven!)

Unfortunately my dessert completely wiped out my slimming salad so it seemed a good idea to have a brisk walk around the town.  Being a Sunday it was very quiet but it's faded elegance made the experience charming all the same.  

L'église St. Mathias at Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire

A traditional French department store with lovely old writing on the exterior

After our lunchtime stroll we headed back to the brocante for some more trucs.  As usual we couldn't resist buying something for ourselves and picked up a foo dog chop seal (also known as fu dogs or fo dogs... lets call the whole thing off!) This cheeky little fella has now found a permanent home on my desk (at the moment he is guarding a lottery ticket so fingers crossed with that one!)

My lovely dog of foo chop seal - who could resist that winning smile!

Just in case my little foo dog doesn't work his magic here are some other things I picked up at the market that can now be found on my Etsy shop.

A lovely vintage cloche and plate - click to see on Etsy

An elegant absinthe spoon - click to see on Etsy

A cute little posy holder - click to see on Etsy

A stunning biscuit barrel by Christofle - click to see on Etsy

A charming little hot chocolate pot - click to see on Etsy

A lovely Art Deco trivet - click to see on Etsy

Lion paw sugar tongs - click to see on Etsy

All in all a hot, tiring day but enjoyable and very successful.  I have discovered it's definitely worth going a little further afield to find those special trucs that I will thoroughly enjoy owning - at least for a little while.