bolt

I got some beautiful old tools at the brocante yesterday - also this fine bolt.

Have a look at the shop for more.

for sale

How does this grab you? An 18th century townhouse in Villefranche with six bedrooms, 2 dining rooms, a library, 4 sitting rooms, 4 living rooms, central heating (I hate to think of the heating bills though!)  and that amazing staircase...

All this could be yours for 393,000€ Alternatively you could spend your money on a three bedroom , 69m² terraced house in Dublin... 

I would so love to have a look around!

market day # 9

the market in June

the market in February

Tomme d'Estaing - such a treat

Going to market in Winter is a very different experience than in Summer. There are far fewer people (no tourists) and far fewer stalls - not so much in the streets around town but in the central market square as you can see from the photos.  It's the prime pitch in Summer but in Winter there is a killer wind that whips through and however cold it is in town you can be sure that it will be a few degrees  less in the square.

I remember being there one cold Winter morning with Warb and we just had to give up and go home. I had brain freeze - my lips were blue, I couldn't think and could only talk scribble!

Yesterday was glacial - stall holders covered up tender leaved veg - salads, spinach and endive with blankets to stop them freezing solid and spoiling.  In the other square the big veg merchants had erected a tent and heated it with gas heaters - much appreciated - thanks!

At least now the mornings are brighter - we normally hit the market at 8am and before Christmas stall holders were using torches to check the change they were giving.

What a job - 6 days a week, up at 5am and then standing freezing until noon. I just couldn't do it.

My current treat from the cheese stall is Tomme d'Estaing an absolutely heavenly cheese from the North Aveyron. To be bought in small quantities to avoid over consumption (and because it costs 25€ a kilo!)

barter

One of the brocanteurs I deal with isn't averse to a bit of bartering. I have been known to go see him with jam and cake!  On Sunday another customer had given him a big sack of potatoes, home made jam and honey and a dozen oranges.

As I was looking around and choosing what I was going to buy he said "I've got something to show you, you're really going to like it, you'll be amazed!"  I've been going there for a while and he knows what I tend to buy so I assumed it was something for the shop.

As I was paying up he excitedly produced the bag of oranges "grown in the Aveyron" he said. We are way too North for growing citrus so the guy must have the tree in a polytunnel or greenhouse. What an achievement though!  A few friends have small lemon trees which do produce small fruit when mollycoddled (wheeled outside during the day and back inside at night) but to have enough full size oranges to be able to give them away is impressive.

I was given 6 - half the haul - and tasted one as soon as I got home - absolutely delicious!

la poste

After quite a bit of confusion (huge understatement!) following the changes to La Poste's tarifs and rules, things seem to be getting back to business as usual. I have lovely new things in the shop - please take a look!

Joyeux Noël et merci

The sun came back yesterday after two weeks of truly hideous weather - the kind of misty rain that penetrates everywhere even though it's not very heavy,  grey skies, no light. So in my manic gratitude I cleaned the house (instead of marzipanning the cakes, baking walnut puffs and wrapping treats) right down to the shells and stones and marbles!

I polished floors and furniture with beeswax polish and while dusting pots and sculpture and paintings thought of the friends who made them. I like the reflective nature of this time of year.

We like to put the tree up on Christmas Eve but at the weekend we realised that the shops were running out so Warb  had a frantic search for one yesterday. Happily he got the very last tree in the Aveyron - a huge one that takes up most of the sitting room and today I got the very last organic free range chicken in the supermarket - someone is smiling on us! The vegetarians (4 out of 6 of us!) will be having mushroom and blue cheese pie (I'll post the recipe sometime - it's a really good one).

I want to  thank everyone who has bought something from A Brown Paper Parcel this past year.  I really enjoy every aspect of it - finding things, finding out about things, the relationships I have developed with dealers and house clearers (interesting characters!), the stories I've heard, the Summer Sunday mornings at the Brocante at the crack of dawn and then back home photographing and listing items and hearing from you!  

Etsy is quite amazing I think. Incredibly simple, organised and user friendly both for buyers and sellers and allowing people like me to have a tiny little business, run from a house in a field in the middle of nowhere, which is nevertheless international! To my customers in the United States, Australia, Denmark, Singapore, Israel, England, Wales and France, Hong Kong, Italy, Russia and Slovenia...

Happy Christmas and all best wishes for 2015!

Méabh

ps. and Germany - how did I miss out Germany? Happy Christmas Sigrid!

villefranche graffiti

I'm not usually a fan of graffiti and I definitely don't like tagging - 

I really don't see the point - but whoever is doing the work above in Villefranche isn't doing a bad job!  He (I get the feeling it's a he) doesn't paint on walls or on property that is lived in. There's a huge number of abandoned and derelict houses in Villefranche. (The council is on to it, grants are available and it's being dealt with but still it's slow going). 

There's another person who has an even  less invasive approach who draws on large sheets of newsprint and then wallpaper pastes them on to doors, shutters etc. Very considerate! I'll take some photos of those too.