I am addicted to treasure-hunting.
When in France I take every opportunity to go to local brocantes (like an antique store, but less curated and generally MUCH less expensive). I also hit every vide-grenier I can find, much to my daughters' exasperation. Vide-greniers are like village-wide garage sales, but in the street or a local field because French people think it an exceedingly odd concept to invite strangers into their homes to buy their old stuff.
I have decorated our four vacation rentals with a mix of new (i.e. mattresses, sofas, all the stuff I would personally never want second-hand) and the antique treasures I have found in Burgundy. Here's a quick little tour of the house we consider our family home in Burgundy - La Maison des Chaumes.
This armoire is one of my cherished finds. Its honey patina never fails to make my heart sing. It is pretty much the first thing one sees when they walk in the front door of La Maison des Chaumes and in my mind sets the tone for our house - simple, casual, welcoming, and authentic.
We found it at one our favourite trocs on the outskirts of Dijon (trocs are basically just another name for brocantes - they are more or less interchangeable). I plastered myself against it, prepared to fight off any usurpers while Franck found a salesperson and paid for it right away.
I still cannot believe what a steal this armoire was - it was ours for a mere 180 Euros...la victoire!
This little beauty at the end of the main hallway of La Maison des Chaumes is what is referred to as a un confiturier, or a cupboard traditionally used to store jam. I found the iron statue on top at huge brocante in the Saône-et-Loire that runs every summer on the banks of La Saône river.
The two paintings above the bent-wood chair (I picked up the chair at a vide-grenier in Pernand-Vergelesses) in the girls' bedroom were bought last summer in Normandy, where we were staying for a week with a friend in their incredible family home. The brocante-ing in Normandy is almost too good to be imagined and I never seem to leave a brocante there with empty hands. I found these two old paintings and loved the serene note they would give to what is - when our family is at La Maison des Chaumes anyway - an extremely full and messy bedroom.
This is one of my favourite pieces in any of our houses. Franck and I found it in one of the trocs in nearby Chalon-sur-Saône. This old cupboard has the most amazing patina and was used in a village bakery for who knows how many years. I picked up the old-fashioned desk calendar at the Saturday morning brocante on the Place Carnot in Beaune. My girls love arguing over whose turn it is to change the day and the date.
Last but not least is our monastery table that we found just after moving into La Maison des Chaumes at the same troc in Dijon where we found the armoire years later. It has been the solid basis of countless french lunches and dinners with family and friends. As Burgundian table culture encourages, we often stay around this table for hours. It is without a doubt the heart of our french home.