Wrapping up our Buying Trip in France

We have finished our container!  We worked too hard and too fast to take photos of many of our finds, but we did take some pretty shots of the scenery around where we’ve been working.

The Arena in Nimes, a Roman amphitheater built 2000 years ago.

Roman ruins can be found throughout the city of Nimes.

The Maison Carrée or Square House in Nimes is one of the best preserved temples anywhere in the territory of the former Roman Empire

Southern France is full of olive trees and lavender...

  

...and fields of sunflowers.

The French are masters of Trompe l'Oeil, which literally means "tricks the eye," an art technique of painting on a flat surface such that the subject appear to be three dimensional.

We catch our flight back up to Paris today and then it’s back home for Renee and vacation in the Balkans for Alexander.  To celebrate our final shopping day, we spent the afternoon on a Mediterranean beach near Montpellier and had fruits de mer (fruits of the sea….or seafood platter) and rosé wine to celebrate! 

Prawns, oysters, mussels, sea snails, crab, and lobster...YUM!

Chateau Coujan

After another day of antique shopping at the Beziers market, we had the chance to meet Harrison’s second host family with whom he will live starting in January.  Florence is from a noble family and is the fifth generation to live in the family chateau.   The estate dates back to Roman times and you can still see vestiges of its Roman past.  Over the centuries, it has evolved into a unique estate that includes a bed & breakfast, still produces wine…

has a 17^th century chapel….

And is home to more than 60 peacocks and 100 white doves.  

Beziers Market

Today there was a large antique market in Beziers.   When we arrived at the gates, where buyers and sellers alike were waiting to get in, we could hear French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Polish, Dutch, German, and some languages we didn’t recognize.  Between the two of us, Alexander and I speak five languages, so we were in polyglot heaven.  At 8 a.m. sharp, the gates opened and we all rushed in.  Here are our favorite finds of the days.

A nineteenth century gilded Louis XV mirror that measures almost eight feet tall.

A pair of nienteenth century hand carved walnut Provencal armchairs.

A collection of charming petite yellow confit pots from the region.

Lunch at the market was Provencal paella with mussels, shrimp, chicken, and squid.

After a long, hot day of work, we had a relaxing dinner full of laughter with Harrison’s host family.  This time, their children, Benoite and Henri, joined us.  The setting was the private property of a local vintner where they have their own restaurant as well. 

Today there was a large antique market in Beziers.   When we arrived at the gates, where buyers and sellers alike were waiting to get in, we could hear French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Polish, Dutch, German, and some languages we didn’t recognize.  Between the two of us, Alexander and I speak five languages, so we were in polyglot heaven.  At 8 a.m. sharp, the gates opened and we all rushed in.  Here are our favorite finds of the days.

A nineteenth century gilded Louis XV mirror that measures almost eight feet tall.

A pair of nienteenth century hand carved walnut Provencal armchairs.

A collection of charming petite yellow confit pots from the region.

Lunch at the market was Provencal paella with mussels, shrimp, chicken, and squid.

After a long, hot day of work, we had a relaxing dinner full of laughter with Harrison’s host family.  This time, their children, Benoite and Henri, joined us.  The setting was the private property of a local vintner where they have their own restaurant as well. 

In the Languedoc

The City of Beziers is about the size of Fayetteville, Arkansas with 70,000 inhabitants.  Somehow it seems much larger.  The downtown is bustling with commerce and the preservation of the historic buildings and central square is impressive.  Allées of centuries-old sycamore trees line the square where the city market is held. 

Beziers is in the Languedoc, an area just west of Provence where vineyards abound.

Although we already had plans to come to Béziers as part of our buying trip, another reason came to light just before we left the States.   We learned that Harrison, Renée and Terry’s son and Alexander’s brother, had been placed in Beziers by the Rotary Youth Exchange program for his senior year of high school in France.  This was the perfect opportunity for us to see where he would be living and to meet his host family.  Coincidentally, his host father is a former antique dealer and was happy to introduce us to his colleagues in the area…which led us to some amazing finds.

Nineteenth century hand carved marble column with grapes and grape vines.

A FABULOUS bronze and Baccarat crystal chandelier with sixteen lights, c. 1830-1840

We attended a party this evening with Laurence and Patrick, Harrison’s French host parents, at their friends’ villa.  Their collection of art and antiques made it hard for us to concentration on minding our manners. 

Southward Bound

Today we geared up for the next leg of our journey which started with a Ryanair flight from Beauvais airport (1.5 hours north of Paris) to Beziers in the south of France.  If you’ve never heard of Ryanair, it is one of several dozen no-frills discount airlines that have popped up in Europe in the last ten years (think Southwest or JetBlue).  And if you’ve never flown any of these airlines, let me tell you that it is quite an experience.  First of all, our tickets cost all of 15 Euros ($22) each for a one-way flight that would have taken us eight hours by car– but you certainly get what you pay for.  We arrived at the sad little airport in the middle of nowhere (although they’ve deceivingly named it PARIS Beauvais) several hours before our flight so we’d have plenty of time to return our rental car and get checked in.  When we got to the ticket counter, we were greeted with a smile and asked if we had any carry-on bags.  When we nodded, the ticket agent left his seat to inspect our luggage.  When our rolling suitcases didn’t fit in the metal frame box measuring exactly 21.5” X 15.5” X 8.5” we were asked to repack or pay an additional 40 Euros ($58) to check a bag.  So, we stepped aside and proceeded to rearrange shoes, toiletries, and a few small antique accessories.  Before returning to his post, the agent added “and make sure your purse and small bag also fit inside your luggage, messieurs-dames.”  So Renee emptied the contents of her purse into her suitcase while I stuffed my postage-size camera bag into my bag.  Needless to say, it took us three tries and a total disregard for orderliness until we finally passed the “carry-on luggage test.”

That was just the beginning.  It was a bit of a free-for-all boarding the plane without assigned seating.  The flight itself had something of a carnival atmosphere with the attendants running up and down the aisles hawking anything from lottery tickets to rubber watches “with the healing power of tourmaline.”  When the plane finally landed at the Beziers airport, a trumpet fanfare blasted from the loudspeakers followed by applause from the passengers, a celebration for another on time arrival by Ryanair. 

In the end, we made it to our destination in one piece, albeit a bit frazzled and asking ourselves if it was worth saving several hundred euros (yes, it was).

An entire shop dedicated to macaroons