Like much of Europe, snowflakes were falling gently this morning as I headed off to  the Rouen ‘Puces’, a three day sale of the most beautiful antiques from all over France.

 I had to wait for the kids to come home for lunch and feed them before I made an early afternoon escape for the fair. As a result I arrived just as the exhibitors were settling down for ‘dejeuner’.

This is France after all, and since each individual stand holder had arranged, for the most part, their antiques into ‘room sets’ to best display their furniture, paintings and ‘objets d’art’, I was amused to find myself walking through several ‘dining rooms, with each Brocanteur comfortably settled at his antique table, complete with linen table cloth, fine glass ware and three course menu. Every ‘dining table’ distinguished itself with a good  bottle of red wine, and a lovely aroma of Boeuf Bourgignon and Paupiettes de Veau filled the exhibition hall!

Clearly, this was not the time to start a business transaction. I decided to give time for the wine to do it’s work, and spend an uninhibited hour wandering between the stands, enjoying what was offer.

Ultimately though, no single bottle of red was going to help reduce the very beautiful ‘banquette’ from 1700€ to an affordable 100€, nor an armoire from 1500€ to 150€!

I took this sneaky one, just after one couple had got up to get back to work.

 These were a few of the stands that I passed during the afternoon….

A quantity of maritime paraphanalia, and old sports equipment..

Lamps and busts…

…. and one of the lovely banquettes.

Several old model boats…

Old urns and chests of drawers…

Antique French linens…

 Distressed wooden frames…

It may not be everyone’s idea of interior decoration but these antlers in the huge stone vase looked incredible in this room-set made up of browns, naturals  and taupes….

…and I was very tempted to take home this ‘serre’ (greenhouse) – sadly the bus driver wouldn’t let me on the bus with it!

Taxidermy, and Butterfies….

Lamps from old bobbins…

A good quantity of Retro -( excuse the photo quality)

I was sorely tempted by the small chandeliers!

In the end I took home a little wooden lion because he was distressed, and who so closely resembled my clay ‘lion with a friendly face‘ waiting for me still to collect him from the UK. Luckily the bus driver didn’t spot him as we climbed on the bus by the back door!

I wonder if you can spot him amongst these photos?

I did spot where the empty bottles ended up though!