Wednesday, June 5, 2013
We've bought our plane tickets.
I'm going back!
In July.
After 2 weeks in France last spring, my husband and I have been working on a plan to return as buyers for
2nd Street Market!
We're traveling with another couple, good friends of ours - Chuck and Karin.
Karin grew up in Germany and speaks German and French!
Chuck is a professional photographer!
(check out Chuck's website here)
So, that's my A-Team and I can't feel more blessed!
I've created a Facebook page for 2nd Street Market.
I invite you come along with us as I shop the markets of France.
Visit my 2nd Street Market page and hit the LIKE button... you know how it works.
Here's our plan:
We'll fly into Paris on July 13th, 5:30am. Of course, we'll be well rested from our overnight trip from Dulles Airport, just outside of Washington, DC.
(Not)
We'll be renting a Sprinter Van - 4 seater. It's a pretty big (and long) van. Should be interesting.
We plan to make our first stop in Normandy and visit the WWII museums etc.
We'll spend our first night in Montreuil sur Mer, in northern France near the English Chanel.
We'll be spending Bastille Day (France's version of the 4th of July) in this medieval village.
On Bastille Day, Montreuil sur Mer pedestrianizes thier cobble stone streets and opens them up to 500! (yes - 500..)
antique vendors!
Wow... that will be my first buying day. I hope our logistical plans come through ok!
That evening will be spent watching French Fireworks!!
From there, we hit markets in
Brussels, Belgium
Strasbourg, France
Lyon, France
and end our buying trip on the Mediterranean Sea, in
Nice, France.
We'll also be doing a bit of touring in Dijon.
John and I will get to spend some time with my dear friends and host family from the spring in Nancray, France.
It's an ambitious travel plan, but we're feeling confident.
I'm still working on securing commercial warehouse space near Dijon or Besançon to make a drop of goods half way through.
It's also where my goods will be shipped to me in the USA.
I'll feel a bit more confident once that is secured.
Having Chuck and Karin with us will be such a comfort and help (not to mention a ton of fun!)
- as Karin will help with the language barrier.
Although... I do hope to do some negotiations by the end of the trip... a la French style.
(the church in Nancray, just a short walk from my host family's home)
(wine country - in Bourgogne or Burgundy - where Pommard wine is made)
I still need to do a post on my wine tasting trip here...
Paris - of course.
Look closely below and you can see workers in red.
These were the doors to the school where my host family's children attended school many years ago.
Every single thing in France is a picture. I was never without my camera!
Don't forget to LIKE on the 2nd Street Market page!
I'd love to have you join us in our adventures.
Merci mon ami.
Posted in:
France,
my Etsy shop,
Travel
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Monday, April 15, 2013
During our stay in France, we toured a unique museum in Nancray, a village outside of Besançon in eastern France.
It's an open air museum featuring homes from the region of Franche-Comté.
This was one of my favorite tours as it depicts life during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. These homes and outbuildings within
Franche-Comté were painstakingly deconstructed and reconstructed on this site in order to preserve the history.
The rolling hill mountains reminded all of us of the foothill mountains of Virginia.
Each dwelling contained stunning antiques - furniture, ceramics, enamelware, cast iron, lace, linens, and on and on.
It was here that I felt a strong urge to return to France as a vintage and antique buyer for my Etsy shop.
I've read that since the dawn of the Internet and Ebay, France has been almost drained of its enamelware, but that beautiful ceramics can still be found in plenty.
I'm already bookmarking flea markets throughout France, looking into language classes, and figuring out import procedures.
We'll see....but I look at these pictures and just swooooooonnnn...
In fact, I had to use them in my About page for my Etsy shop.
Back to the museum...
One of my favorite things about each home was the contrast of rough and delicate...
Huge wood beams, stone floors and chimneys - along side delicate lace curtains and beautiful petit chairs.
Beautiful bed linens....
I apologize for the odd angels of some of my pictures.
I'm sure I was a bit of a comic spectacle - trying to listen to the French speaking tour guide (picking up about 30 percent of what was being said through gesture and my extremely limited understanding of French), keeping up with the our students, and trying to capture each room with my Nikon.
Thanks to my dear friend, Marie-Luce and her beautiful command of the English language, I was able to get the full tour.
What a lovely way to wash hands before dinner.
(completely impractical in our world, but still lovely)
Ah! This table setting alone tugs at me to return to France!!
Those beams! That stone floor! That stone fireplace!
Somehow I didn't grab a picture of the stone stairs that was just on the other side of this room. ugh!
Examples of roof tiles.
Even fish roof tiles.
The museum is a working farm.
This fellow was pruning the pear trees and heard Marie-Luce and I talking in English.
He asked us if we were Americans - and I answered yes, that I was an American. (Marie-Luce is French)
Turns out he was from Connecticut! He had moved to France 10 years prior.
This museum is not a typical destination for an American tourist in France, so he doesn't often get a chance to talk with Americans.
It was fun meeting him and talking about the States and France.
More stone... even stone roofs!!
More stone and contrasting lace curtains in the windows. So beautiful!
Textile arts can be seen throughout the homes.
Beautifully unique chimney.
If touring eastern France, I highly recommend this museum!
Posted in:
France,
Travel
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Wednesday, April 10, 2013
I have (reluctantly) returned from 12 days in France.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about what I would say when folks back home ask 'how was it?'
I have yet to find words that carry the fullness of my experience.
I've come home with 1400 photos on my Nikon and 500 photos on my iPhone.
One cannot take a bad picture while in France.
For those who do not follow my blog, I went to Besancon and areas surrounding as well as a day in Paris.
This trip was with my kids' high school, an exchange program between our high school and a school in Besancon, sister city to Charlottesville, our hometown.
We had hosted two French students last fall... and the rest is history. I had to go on the return trip to France, having never been.
My dear, dear host family took me many, many places and I plan to blog about some of them here.
I didn't know where to start when I downloaded all my pictures - too many beautiful places to choose from.
I finally decided to start with Ornans, France, home of the 19th century realist painter, Gustave Courbet
The day we walked Ornans, it was mystically cloudy and cool. Perfect for moody photographs.
Ornans sits along the Loue River Valley. On sunny days, the homes along the river reflect mirror images into the water.
Back along the rock cliff behind the town are ruins and religious statues.
The bridge in the distance (below) is one of two 17th Century stone bridges in Ornans.
Below is a photograph of the home fronts that sit on the river.
My host on the left is showing us the way through the buildings to get up to the water and see the ducks.
Can't help but think - Tour de France!
Too beautiful for words.....
Below is the building that houses many pieces of the artist Goustave Corbet, once his home.
So much more France to come...
Posted in:
France,
Travel
0 comments
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