la Brocanteuse

Jun 16, 2010

Finding linen..

No need to wonder where we are...still travelling the French countryside...


What an eventfull day we had!! it started off with a little incident on our way to find the Brocante we discovered last year when travelling the same route...I desperately wanted to visit this particular brocante again since I remember the  room at the back of the locale  stacked to the ceiling with linen- monogrammed everything! I wanted to find those special mongrammes that friends ask for..the innitiales of their names or family names..
I tried to contact the dealer  but with no avail. We decided to take the chance and see if we could remember the area we drove and found it as we came around a corner a year ago....the trip would take a good three hours from where we are staying in Puy- d' Arnac. Little winding roads through woods and walnut orchards, ivy covered dry packed stone walls and cows grazing in fields...just like .the start of a french film- just perfect.




Along the way we would stop every now and then to capture a image. It was one such Kodak-moment that we had to stop for, that it happened...



We saw the statue at a crossroad...unfortunately we could not make out the name as the stone with the inscription has weathered over the years to make it unreadable. oh stop! stop! stop!, we shouted....reversed and then it happened...we felt the jerk and we were stuck...




It does not look like anything...but believe me, we were stuck! the more we tried to get out of the ditch, the more we worsened the situation..the left front weel of the vehicle was in the air.


we walked around a bit, sort of looking what we could possibly do- not to concerned, since Mr Bean has taken us on numerous safari trips in Botswana and surely this was just a not even worth mentioning situation when one travels through the Okavango swamps..nothing.! Before we could even begin to frown...a young farmer came to our rescue.. he saw us from his field.....and drove over in  his tractor.



a French man to the rescue..




Done! 2 minutes,  we took our photo's and we were on our way again
laughing at the thought of how it must  have looked to a bystander..the only other life around were the cows...and this unknown to us- statue-thank goodness the farmer were ploughing his fields!



on to the next village: - MARTEL

 



then further on towards RODEZ

 

a stop along the way...







 the Brocante had closed down in it's original locale, but our French connection ( my good friend Ronelle from "My french Kitchen" kept on phoning around and sent information through to us...by the time we reached the area where we found it previously, she had all the contact details of the new address  for us)


The Brocante that I had in mind all along, often wondered about for allmost a year, not forgetting the stacks and stacks of linen, that inspired the trip to France, was no longer there. The owner had opened a new brocante at her home -still full of lovely treasures, but no room in the back with linen...she did have an armoir full of linen, most of it is going home with me-all monogrammed and beautifull of course.







just proof again that one must live each moment to the fullest...it may not come around again- in the same way..

we drove home,
again pausing for photographs.
We decided to stop for dinner
 in  Beaulieu - sur -Dordogne



we took a stroll through the little narrow streets,
peeped into the church where the door was ajar..





steps to nowhere,but beautifull to capture

and after dinner, on the village square where we parked our vehicle ,which had started the day off by being towed by a tractor, now filled with   precious linen...



This photo was taken at 10.30 pm- the skies still blue with the last of the day light.

a Bientot

Colette X


6 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, do we not get any pictures of the linen? After all, it inspired the trip, the post, and occupied your thoughts much of the year. As a fellow linen lover, I would love to see what you found!

Thank you for sharing your trip!

Cris

La Brocanteuse said...

Hi Chris! I promiss to share the linen once it arrives back home...we pack as we source, into special canvas bags ready for shipping directly to South Africa, allso I would like to share it after it has been washed and ironed with the monogrammes shown to their full-best!I wont let you down!! thanks for popping in. Colx

Notes From ABroad said...

Wonderful !
I so enjoyed this !

VS said...

JUST YUMMY!!! Hi Friend,
What a sweet & lovely blog you have! I look forward to following you through all of life's amazing adventures. Have a great weekend.
Smiles,
Susie

La Brocanteuse said...

welcome Suzi, thanks for popping in..I have to say everyday tripping throught the country side here is an adventure..this morning we woke up with a bell ringing at the door...it was a cow with her fellow-mates on their way to graze...we greeted in afrikaans, not thinking- but of course these cows are french! they looked very puzzled...but then cows allways looks puzzled! colette x

Anonymous said...

A memorable countryside experience! you will never look at a ditch the same way...hie hie. Beautiful images!1
Bisous
Ronelle