Vide Grenier at Bonrepos

'Empty Attics at Good Rest'! The charmingly named 'Bonrepos', which truly does mean 'good rest' had a Vide Greniers today (the literal translation is 'Empty Attics').

A Vide Greniers is pretty much like a car boot sale, although with fewer cars. For Americans, I guess it's a huge collection of garage sales.

There were a lot of 'brocante' sellers there - small sub-antique type collectables.

I only filled this much of my bag - does this mean it was an unsuccessful visit?Not at all! I felt positively like Kaari Meng at times with the things I was finding. I've no time or energy to photo them all or blog about them now, but I'll aim to give you the full report of my experience and finds tomorrow!

Portrait of a Lady

It's been a productive yet un-photogenic day today, so I thought I'd share some finds from under the floorboards of my parents' church! Here is the lady of the title - an Edwardian, I guess. She was under the basement floorboards, which have been lifted as the basement is being made into wheelchair friendly community rooms. Don't worry, Mel - no damage to the historic fabric of the church!

She's on a calling card case - could it have been her own? Or was this just a pretty decoration?

The inside was pretty too, although the whole thing has corroded after years under the boards.Nearby was a record of pew fees, which were paid by the more wealthy members of the congregation to help with the upkeep of the building. There were plenty of free pews, too, fortunately.In my parents' scullery are four earthenware bottles or jars which also came from other areas of the church basement.The congregation and the workmen have decided that these bottles probably held printers' ink. These two jars are self-explanitory! The Dundee Marmalade remains famous, and the Craigmillar Dairy is not far from the church.Isn't it amazing what can be hiding under our feet?

What's all this about?

This is a bit of a trial run for me. I'm an English mum, a life-long charity shopper, who has moved with the family to France and discovered the joys of troc, broc, recup' and the wonderful vide greniers! It's like charity shopping (thrift shopping) gone mad!

Here's a quick French/English dictionary:

Troc (short for trocante, I think) - it means 'trading' as in 'barter', but now it's the name given to any kind of second hand/junk/thrift shop, for clothes, furniture, ornaments etc. Huge warehouse shops exist, lots of them with internet selling sites too.

Broc (short for brocante) is a step up from troc - it's vintage French furniture or bits and bobs, not quite fancy enough to be called antique, but better than newish junk.

Recup' (which matches its English counterpart, 'recuperate') is the great French art of using old stuff to make something new - it's been properly used by French artists for at least a century, so it's taken a bit more seriously than in the UK. I think Americans take it seriously too, so that's somthing we Brits could learn!

Vide Greniers (love them, love them) means 'empty attics', and they are basically the garage sales/carboot sales of France. Local charities run them all summer long. I bought my first piece of French vintage stuff at our school vide greniers last year.

Also not to be forgotten: the charity shops run by Secours Catholique in my area, which are by far my cheapest source of clothing, fabric and the occasional ornament.

Marchés aux Puces (think I've spelt it correctly) are the famous Flea Markets. Believe it or not, I've not been to one yet. This is becoming one of my new life goals, though.

I'm planning to use this blog as a record of exciting shopping trips, finds, and recup' projects, along with anything else interestingly French. I think my mother will be interested, as she brought me up to be the keen thrift shopper I am today! We'll have to see if anyone else is interested....