All lust, but no luck!

I wouldn't say the Marché Aux Puces was a complete flop, as much as we were wildly under-funded for the venture. Julia and I spent most of our time swooning over things we couldn't afford, while John looked diligently at broken watches and tried to come up with new and innovative ways to convince me that buying one was a good idea. We didn't come home entirely empty handed though-- Julia bought two fabulous vintage necklaces and I bought a terrific little brooch for my spring coat lapel. These buys were great-- great finds and great bargains-- but let's be honest, they didn't hold a candle to the beautiful things we left behind. : ( 

Looking at the picture above, at first glance you might think, really? That seems like a pretty average french chair... And HOW could you get it on a plane anyway??? NOT SO! That chair is actually a salesmen's sample chair... a miniature version of what would have been a "pretty average french chair", that salesmen used when selling their furniture. It's only about 15" tall-- smaller than a child's chair and better suited for a medium sized doll. All three chair shown (above and below) are salesmen sample chairs and I thought they were beyond fantastic. Sadly, they were also beyond my budget, at €90.00 a pop, which converts to roughly more money than I can spend on tiny chairs in US Dollars. 

Another swoon-worthy sight: an antique stand brimming with huge hanging glass lanterns. The vendor had dozens of them, with all different varieties of etched and molded glass dome bases. I imagined hanging these from a tree or pergola out at Fox Ridge, with big pillar candles flickering away inside, and I'm pretty sure it would have been nigh on magical. However, getting them home wouldn't be quite so magical (they were about 20" of glass each) and the price wasn't so magical at €75.00 either. I do still love the idea though, so I'm going to file these away in my "to hunt for" folder and try to find something similar when I get back, stateside. 

Even though we couldn't afford to buy the things we were most smitten with, it is such a pleasure to go to a market where there are so many beautiful things. Often when you go to flea markets, the junk-to-gems ratio can be so disappointing/discouraging, and you end up leaving with three pairs of discount socks and a broken spirit. I think we were all so satisfied by the fabulous things we saw that we didn't mind coming home with only a couple of pieces of costume jewelry... well, except for John. Who still really wanted a broken watch. : ) 

Still more news to come, so keep checking back! 

À bientôt!