Inspiration from across 'La Manche'

If you are a reader of my blog you will know that I have a long held dream to open a coffee shop/brocante in my home town of Cognac alongside my chef husband, Spike. So whenever I get the chance I try to find other businesses of a like mind.  

Unfortunately this does entail lounging around in tea rooms, coffee shops and cafés where I am obliged to sample many a cake (all in the name of research you understand).

During my recent trip to England I was especially keen to visit a particular coffee/vintage shop based in Eastbourne that I had read about online.  

The coffee shop in question is called Jasper Wood and along with my good friend, Sally, we set off with the arduous task of checking it out.

The lovely eclectic interior was instantly welcoming and it wasn't long before we had installed ourselves on a comfy sofa.

All around there were interesting things to look at and to buy ranging from hand-made jewellery and vintage clothes to antique bric-a-brac.

I particularly loved our black lacquered chinoiserie table as I thought it would be just the thing for my office (plans of an opulent room of my own are ongoing) but judging by Sally's reaction I think it is perhaps of an acquired taste!  And yes, to my shame, the deluxe hot chocolate complete with floating marshmallows and a tower of squirty cream was mine!

I was impressed that the presentation of the objects for sale illustrated beautifully how striking they could look in a domestic setting - oops I seem to be punning again, I honestly don't even know when I'm doing it now!  

I was having such a lovely time I didn't even think to ask how much the stunning gramophone was... looking at it again I really wish I had!  There were lots of little touches that being a fan of all things vintage I really appreciated such as the little silver plated salt and pepper pots that were brought to our table when we ordered lunch (a yummy panini by the way) and the vintage crockery for when we had tea and lemon drizzle cake (once again I had eaten the cake before I remembered to photograph it... must try harder!)

All in all I can't think of a better place to while (or wile... there seems to be something of a debate about that) away a few hours and catch up with an old friend (sorry Sally you know what I mean)... except perhaps the 'Museum of Shops and Social History' that is handily situated next door - but that's most definitely a story for another day!
   

Ma visite en Angleterre

After numerous cancellations I finally made the trip back England and although nursing a bit of a cold I was determined not to let that stop me from making the most of all the opportunities I had to restock my Etsy shop (which was closed while I was away) and to catch up with friends and family.

The long drive back to England in our van, Piggy, was made less arduous by the company of my Mum and Stepfather who had bravely come to stay in our less than restored house in Cognac for a week or so.

My Mum Barbara, Livi and Me (and doggies) in the Park in Cognac
before the epic journey to England

The last leg of the trip was the worst bit because not only was I tired and feeling really ill I found that having been spat out of Newhaven Ferry Port in England I could hardly see the verge of the unlit country roads at all (guess who forget to get some beam benders!) so that was a bit stressy to say the very least!

Anyway, having finally arrived I decided to start my buying bonanza by visiting an auction in Folkestone which is situated about an hour down the road from my base in Hastings.  One tricky thing aspect of this particular sale was that they had two auctions running simultaneously - one for furniture upstairs and one for petits trucs downstairs. Luckily my Mum had agreed to come with me so I had the advantage of an extra pair of eyes to keep on top of the situation.

The auction yielded mixed results as I found that the furniture was very reasonable and bought a few lovely bits for the house which I will no doubt reveal at some later date but at present are safely in storage.  However, the smaller trucs that I had earmarked for my online shop did not go so cheaply and once I had added the sale room commission and the exchange rate back into euros I think I may have made a couple of boo boos!  Only time will tell.

This lovely silver topped biscuit barrel was one
of my better buys and I can't wait to clean it up

I'm also pleased with this retro barometer and thermometer
although I paid more than I would have liked

These two super little inkwells caught my eye and I was glad to get them

The next stage of my plan was to check out the local antique and bric-a-brac stores to see if I could find some bargains but sadly the prices again were high and unlike the antique TV programmes I habitually watch they weren't really budging much on prices.  One rather sarcastic gentlemen crowed "where's the film crew?" when I asked for his best price on a couple of items - and they say the French are rude!

Back at home I have unpacked and assembled my buys in preparation for
cleaning and will assess which ones are destined for my Etsy Shop
and which ones are to be sold at a local flea market in Cognac 

I look forward to sharing with you over the coming weeks a selection of the trucs I have purchased (once I get around to sorting through them) as well as some of the interesting places I visited during my visit to Angleterre.  But in the meantime I have sledgehammer wielding husband to clear up after who is busy knocking openings in our walls to improve the layout of our house and to let in more light so I'll bid you adieu for now and get the broom!

The horrible boxing in at the bottom of the stairs is gone

and so is half our dining room wall.... don't worry it will all be wonderful
when it's done!!!

Adieu mes Petits Poules

It's been a bit of sad week because we said goodbye to our three little chickens.   Don't worry they were not put in the pot - they are now residing back in the countryside where they belong. 

LaVerne enjoying the rich diet provided by the ample garden
of our old house

As soon as we moved to Cognac the three girls immediately took to
hanging around the back door and bullying the cats and dogs

We did try to find a way to keep LaVerne, Patty and Maxene but they did insist on pooping on their own doorstep which is never a good idea.

 

Jake looking harassed

and Oscar standing very very very still so as not to rile them

I will miss them but not the "walnut whips" they left in their wake

So it was with regret that they were whisked away to pastures new and a young family with a very excited 9 year old boy who I know will enjoy the antics of the cheekiest chickens I've ever known.

Enamoured with Enamel

One kind of truc that I never seem to tire of is enamelware.  Via my Etsy shop I have sold many of these pieces, picked up from brocante markets and vide greniers, to people all over the world.

They invariably have a few little chips here and there giving them their trademark rustic shabby chic appearance. Here are some favourites that I have had the pleasure of owning if only for a short time:-

A gorgeous 1950's kettle in a pale duck egg blue 

This lovely enamel box originally made for storing matches

This sunny yellow coffee pot with filter

I wish I had kept this stunning little jug but it sold so fast I didn't
 withdraw it from my shop on time

A 1950s industrial style alarm clock

One of many trivets I've sold - an enduring and popular item

Another favourite of mine - a delightful 1950s desk lamp

My stock is still on the low side at the moment which will hopefully be remedied by my long awaited visit to Angleterre next month.  However I do still have a lovely red trivet and a beautiful enamelled soap dish for sale although I don't expect they will hang around for long.

Click on photo to view on my Etsy Shop

Click on photo to view on my Etsy Shop

Roll on the Spring when the brocante season in France really begins and here's hoping I come across more of these enamelled gems.

Fenêtregate

In my view one of the most important aspects of a house is it's windows, especially when the house in question is a period property.  The difficulty with new getting windows right is weighing up the ascetics against the ecological properties.

Our new house in Cognac dates from the mid to late 1800's and some of the original single glazed windows are still in place but the majority have been changed at one time or another for less sympathetic windows so the decision to replace all the windows in the house wasn't difficult.

The horrible windows we have now that will be transformed into lovely
French doors onto the balcony

The ugly window in our living room (this was taken before we moved in)

What was difficult was finding an ascetically pleasing wooden double glazed option that would be made to look as authentic as possible.  Personally I would rather freeze, run up massive heating bills and ruin the ozone layer before placing Lego plastic windows in my house but I realise that I am in the minority there so I'll do the decent thing and shut up about it.

Before we made appointments with any menuisiers (French artisans specialising in windows and doors) I made-up a file with photos of the style of windows I would like for the house.  One remaining original window in the house I particularly like is in my office so this was to be my example or template for all the others.

The window in my office that I would like recreated with double glazing

Having interviewed various people who also made the dreaded plastic versions it became clear that the wooden windows they could provide were not what I was after at all.  The glazing bars that I wanted at the top of each window (like many town houses in France) were flimsy bits of beading stuck on the glass (or even worse between the two pains of glass for ease of cleaning... yuk... sorry!) and having visited one workshop in particular I left feeling incredibly depressed at the quality of workmanship on offer.

It was after that visit that we remembered someone we had used before to make authentic windows for a large old property we owned previously in the Vienne region of France. We didn't really think he would come this far south because he seems to have lots of work but in view of the fact that we were offering such a big job he did come to do a quote.

Our old house with his authentically made wooden windows

The lovely window he made for our kitchen

After a week or so they e-mailed over the quote and as expected for 13 windows it was very expensive but surprisingly it came in considerably lower the disappointing workshop we had visited earlier.

Having visited his workshop and discussed the finer details further with him and his wife just before Christmas we came to an accord  that they would come to fit the first three windows in the New Year.  So last Friday the living room window at the front of the house and two attic bedroom windows at the back arrived.  As I peeked in the van the construction looked authentic and the colour I had chosen for the exterior side of the windows (a very dark grey - no it's not black just very very very dark grey) seemed OK so we left them to it.

After an hour or so I heard them trudge up the stairs past my office so I decided to take a look at the window they had fitted in the living room but as soon as I saw it I knew it wasn't right - the bar at the top was too low.  I quickly nipped out of the front door feeling flushed and crossed the road to look at it from the outside and there was no getting away from it... it was wrong!

I know you're possibly thinking that I'm being very fussy but if the glazing bars
were higher the window would appear to be more elongated and elegant.   

I called Spike to see what he thought and to my immense relief he agreed that the window looked a bit odd and wasn't made to the right proportion.  After this shock we then tentatively went up the two flights of stairs to see the attic window they had now begun to fit. My heart sank as it had exactly the same problem, in fact it also had the unfortunate side effect that the glazing bar was set at my eye line so that when I stood at the window to enjoy the view all I could see was wood!

My view out of the attic bedroom window

The view I was hoping to have without having to bend my knees 

We measured the window in my office and concluded that the glazing bar was set a quarter of the way down the glass but the windows he had made had the glazing bar set at a third of a way down. Of course if I had gone for the stick-on a flimsy bit of beading option this problem could have been easily remedied but with me being an extremely fussy person and insisting on having windows made by authentic construction the problem was not so easy to solve.

To make matters worse when I asked if they had made any more of the windows he said that he had made all but four (luckily they hadn't yet made the French doors to the balcony so that was a small comfort)

The top window doesn't look too terrible from the outside but the window below
 (our bedroom) made to the same proportions being larger would look worse 

I withdrew with Spike as calmly as I could from the attic room and after a hushed conversation over a soothing cup of tea we agreed that we would go to the workshop to see how bad the other windows looked. The poor guy looked a bit stressed when we suggested this as I think he was hoping that we would let it go - I noticed that his eyebrows seemed to be standing on end as if the tension had made them pointy (he must be an eyebrow twiddler when stressed).

OK I may not have live in a beautiful Parisian building but I was
at least hoping to have the same style windows 

So early Monday morning we set off to visit his wife who runs the administrative side of the business to see if we could sort the mess out.  We were very nervous because having tried to live with the windows over the weekend we knew that if we compromised we would always be disappointed with them (which is particularly bad news as I am not planning to move from here... ever... honestly!).

Thankfully faced with the irrefutable 'evidence' contained within my trusty folder (years of being a legal secretary were not a waste of time after all) she agreed to reorder the glass and have all the windows altered to our specification which will unfortunately cut into their profit but they would have lost a lot more if we had decided to take our business elsewhere. As I couldn't find an 'elsewhere' I must confess I'm very relieved she agreed to change them.

So touch wood (no pun intended) the 'Fenêtregate' crisis is over and our lovely old house is back on track to get the gorgeous elegant windows it truly deserves.

Retail Therapy

It seems like ages since I've had a chance to buy some new trucs for my Etsy shop and with my stock being so low we decided to visit one of the first brocantes of the year.  The town of Bourcefranc le Chapus is about an hour and half from Cognac so it was a bit of risk that the market wouldn't be very good (or even worse cancelled) but because it was a sunny day and close to the lovely Ile d'Oleron we thought it would make a great day out anyway.  

We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at the brocante because although not the largest flea market we've ever been to it was nevertheless packed with goodies.  

Approaching the market things were looking promising

We bought a couple of things from this stall and I think it's safe to say that
the vendor was very happy

I always find it hard to get my eye in when I haven't been hunting for trucs for a while but in the end we managed to truffle out a few interesting items before heading off to the Ile d'Oleron to find somewhere for lunch.

Just when you think you have seen it all you come across a
phone with a velour fitted cover

We were lucky that we bumped into a some neighbours from when we lived in our previous house in the countryside because not only was it lovely to see them and catch up but they also pointed us in the direction of Chateau d'Oleron on the island as a good lunchtime destination.

When we arrived we headed for centre ville and came across a super little place that had a lovely vintage vibe called 'Le Drugstore'.  The food was great and the ambiance was really my truc and not far off from the feel I would like for our future plan of a coffee shop/brocante.  It was encouraging that Le Drugstore had a constant stream of customers and seemed to be doing very well.

A lovely traditional shop front really sets the scene

I love the eclectic interior especially the industrial clocks and gilt mirror 

A welcoming atmosphere and a relaxed vintage feel

The food is as good as it looks (I had a baked cheesecake for dessert
but it seemed to disappear before I had a chance to take a photo!!!)

After lunch we drove past some rustic little shacks selling sea salt and oysters, both farmed on the Ile d'Oleron, and made a promise to ourselves that we would definitely visit this charming little island again in the summer to have a good explore and to get to know it better.    

A traditional oyster hut and oyster bed

Le Truc to Overcoming French Bureaucracy

Today's post I'm afraid is not very positive.  Having resolved to build on my little Etsy shop in 2015 the mean old French Post Office have cancelled their small package postal service leaving only one alternative of a much more expensive option.  The only packages that can be sent at a reasonable postal rate must be under 3cm in thickness.  

I thought I had found a way around the problem by sending the packages by another method that doesn't have a 3cm limit to the thickness of the package but this has been changed to documents only.  I'm not sure what La Poste are trying to achieve by cutting these services but I'm not a happy bunny. 

These changes will of course disrupt many small businesses in France that send merchandise abroad. There is an online petition against this rather unjust situation and I ask that you click on the link and add your name to help people with small businesses, like myself, to earn a meagre living. 

Anyway, moan over, I will have to adjust the trucs I source and sell to accommodate this new regime and hope that the Post Office sees sense over the coming months and reinstates the old service.

As far as life in general goes all is well in the good old town of Cognac and things are progressing with the renovation of the house.  

Me looking glamorous and ready to hit the town...
OK ready to insulate the attic

I'm also planning a trip to England next month so that's really something to look forward to as it's been about three years now since my last visit.

A beautiful sea view in Hastings taken on my last visit to England

One of many interesting antique and bric-a-brac shops
around the south coast of England

So it looks like I will be spending a while today pulling some of the stock off my website that isn't viable with the new postal rates and changing the postage to the rest.  Let's hope that my customers will not be too put off by these changes and that this whole situation is just a storm in a vintage teacup.