Today is the last day to enter my giveaway… If you would like to play along please leave me a comment, subscribe to French Essence, sign up to receive MY DAILY CLICK… Tweet, re-tweet and share… the more entries the more chances… I will email the winners tomorrow, French time…
I had fun at that brocante in Villeneuve-les-Avignons I mentioned yesterday… Aren’t these clocks charming lined up like this? It doesn’t even matter that they aren’t working… I like them as a composition…
Thinking back, there were so many great objets that I left behind… I was too busy looking and too slow buying… Sometimes I find that it can be overwhelming in markets… the temptation is to ‘think about it’ and ‘come back later’… A total ‘no’ ‘no’ for a serious shopper… we very rarely go backwards and when we do, it has invariably sold… Flea market buying is all about knowing your mind, taking decisive action and honing those negotiating skills… xv
Flea Market reads for your library…
**Antiquaires: Flea Markets of Paris
Vintage French Interiors: Inspiration from the Antique Shops and Flea Markets of France
image – vicki archer
You have a natural knack for making the most ordinary look charming.The composition of the clocks is charming. Have a good week.
jo
I dream of the day I can visit France and browse the markets to find that something special just like these gorgeous little clocks. Thanks for bringing a little bit of France into my life until the time I can enjoy it in person
Beautiful clocks! The white backgrounds and crisp Roman numerals of the faces are stand-outs! The details on the hands are just right. I always enjoy the photos from your local brocante.
Deborah
Charming post Vicki … thank you for bringing a touch of France to us … I check for your updates frequently and am always delighted and briefly transported to your magical world. xo ~ Leslie
After many years I have learnt that she who hesitates always looses out! So now if I love it I buy it and hope it will fit in my house somewhere or if not mine somebody else’s home who will love the objet too!
Yes, there are a few items I left behind over the years that still come to my mind. Now I know those are the ones I should have purchased! Beautiful clocks!
love my morning vacations to France with you. It’s almost time for me to win!!
Yea !!
Your blog is absolutely gorgeous and inspiring! I have shared on my blog, Fb and Twitter and will keep Tweeting!! I would be soo grateful to win some of your gorgeous peices.
Chao!
Gorgeous. I needed some gilt “bling” this Monday morning!
Blog address correction
You sure are living the life. (le sigh)
French baskets. I love them. My cat does too.
Right that’s another Tweet for this wonderful blog & another Blog post on my site! I love the Clocks, thats another must on my list for my visit to Nice later this year! They are very pretty! Have a great day!
Lavinia
x
These clocks are beautiful!! What a wonderful way to spend the day. I don’t know how you decide what to buy!!! It would be so difficult with so many beautiful objets!
How true Vicki ! I have hesitated and thought too much over a buy and then alas it has been taken. The clocks look so darling how I envy you to be able to visit all those georgous brocante.I remember the lovely market in AIx when we were iin Provence two years ago..I could happily spend hours and hours in flea markets!!!!!
Thankyou for a lovely post.x Trish
The clocks are beautiful!
Love your blog and your book recommendations. I gave a friend the “Little Black book of Paris” for her birthday. She loved it and will put it to good use in October while she is there.
Vicki,
French clocks! Any one of those would by pretty on a shelf or mantle. It must have been fun!
Karen
Ah ‘The Flea Markets Of France’. I borrowed that book from my neighbour (another huge fan of yours) to read while she actually traveled through France and Italy. I sighed and dreamed I was with her, buying one of those adorable quilts that I love but can never remember the name of. I’m not on facebook or twitter (I think I hear gasping from your other readers) but am a subscriber.
I look forward to your blogs, they are full of gorgeous “trucs”, inspiring and insightful. The brocante season is well underway and I enjoy the buzz of anticipating that today might just be the day for unearthing a hidden treasure. In fact that’s my philosophy for life really!
Love your blog…found your posts on Paris invaluable when I visited last year…would love to be entered into your giveaway…thanks for your generous inspiration.
The clocks make a spectacular photo-heading to your post, and they encapsulate French Essence so perfectly!!
It’s great too to have gven us the links to some of the best flea markets. Since I live so very close to the Swiss border, every Saturday and Wednesday you’ll find me haggling at the antique linen stalls at the Marché aux Puces de Genève. So if you ever wander this far North, or fancy a mid-point stop-over between Paris and Provence, do join me! Having said I go specially for the linens, my prize find this past Saturday was an old Peugeot coffee grinder: something I’d been hunting for for ages, and an old pewter pair of candlesticks dated 1863 (they hallmarked pewter in those days). Bonne semaine from a quietly-triumphant Jenny, x
Loving those clocks! There are so beautiful!
http://www.donnaviningblog.com
Great French clocks. Market finds can yield great results!
Gorgeous clocks! You have a gifted eye for beautiful things.
Gilt clocks – and it doesn’t even matter if they do not work as they are just so gorgeous! I would have all three.
Three elegant clocks.I drooled over the details like the star burst and star motif on the dainty hands. They repeat popular designs from the French sun king’s time. Imagine what assignations were kept with a glance at the clock, as a lady from a past era carefully completed her toilette? And … who purchased these for Madame originally? A rich husband or a wedding gift or simply a trifling gift of the moment from an admirer? Thank you for the visual treats each day Vicki.P.S. The early French went to Van Diemen’s land too- still influencing us.
Wonderful finds Vicki and thanks for mentioning the flea market books!
leslie
Love, love the first clock!
I have left things behind that I should have bought too and later went back and the piece was gone. Disappointing.
Teresa
xoxo
For all of you living in France, here are two useful links: http://www.toutcequisepassepresdechezmoi.fr/ and http://www.marchesauxpucesdefrance.fr They are both sites where you can see what’s happenning in your region, and advertise for free your own braderie or vide-grenier. The first one is also a great resource for learning about everything from an exhibition or concert to a local tennis tournament. Hope you find them useful, along with Vicki’s super reading list. (I’ve already been ordering my own copies of her recommendations on amazon and the book depository.) Happy bargain hunting à la francaise!
Dear Vicky, Will you sell any of these beautiful clocks? Have been looking for them. It doesn’t matter to me that they don’t work. I appreciate them for their beautiful workmanship. ox, gina
Vicki,
More beautiful items from the fabulous French flea markets.
I love the clocks!
I have joined the blog, and the daily click and of course the email feed so that I can get my dose of French Life daily.
I hope you have a wonderful week!
Elizabeth
sooo fabulous, those clocks all in a row. xxpeggybraswelldesign.com
I love your blog and have done since day one, need I say more? Love the new layout!
Angela
I am a new follower of your blog. I love it! Just bought an old Greek Revival Farmhouse in CT. Pulling it together slowly but surely. I love seeing the “brocante” you find in France. Can’t get anything like it here at the flea markets. Thanks for sharing with us!
Oh! Those clocks – I do love them. I haven’t had much luck at flea markets over the years but now I’ll follow your tips and hope to have better success. Many years ago I looked all over Germany for a clock such as those pictured and had to settle for a reproduction. Now, when I take it for its tune-up, the clock maker tells me “they don’t make them like that anymore,” and that he knows several people who would love to have it. So, if one waits long enough, a reproduction can become an antique!
Hello Vicki,
I’ve been following your blog for years. I’m always eager to open my email ( and now Facebook) to your beautiful pictures and blog.
Thank you for sharing the beauty of France with all of us. Seeing it through your eyes is sweeter and more romantic.
BTW I love when you post pics of your gardens, I feel transported there walking through the gardens and having tea with you and your family under the shade of the trees.
Clara
Ohh how time flies! Ha, ties in nicely with your clock theme! I so love your blog and the new one …. Would just love to win, I thought there was ages left yet – good job I checked in! Xx Jules xx
Your strategy for success when shopping flea markets is spot on.
A balance of personal aesthetic and practical application is always a good idea. Have enjoyed seeing some of the items that were available at the brocante. A perfect outing for a Spring day!
My best negotiating skill is to quietly walk away from said object and let my Frenchman take care of it. Funny how that seems to lop the price in two…
Now I really want to see the Villeneuve market! I don’t know whether to thank you or curse you.
I love these clocks, so elegant, yet so simple, each one complementing the other. It looks like they all belong together!
At sometime I would love to see a list of the best flea markets in the Paris area. When visiting last fall we went to a few, and I was dissappointed.
I love the clocks! Who cares if they don’t tell the same time – that just means it’s time for tea (or cocktails) somewhere, anytime!!!
It is a great picture – the composition is great.
YEA! You couldn’t have timed this post better!
I needed this flea market PLAN, as I’ll checking them out in a couple of weeks.
I know what I want but with so many distractions I need to be FOCUSED.
I’m after VINTAGE LINEN, LACE and old Buttons!
xox
Shane
Loving your new site, so easy to spend hours looking at everything. My big regret was not buying the gorgeous linen at the markets, now I can view it on your page and dream.
I know the feeling of traipsing around the flea markets and “thinking about it” only to find the object of my divided desire had been sold. Then I found I really wanted it and experienced the total opposite of buyer’s remorse. I’m not the best negotiator though. Will have to work on that before attempting a French flea market.
Excited about your fabulous give-away! I have subscribed to your new blog website!
I have Tweeted about your new blog website! Very excited about your new venture and your amazing give-away!
Victoria
vaustin08@gmail.com
Shared about your new blog website and very excited about your amazing give-away!
Reading your blog is the way I start each day while I am waiting for the Cafe to brew.
As a long time Antique dealer & lover of all French objects you are living my dream.
I have purchased many books & beauty products you have recommended & I must say they are now my favorites as well!
I am always dreaming of our next trip to France and you are keeping the dream alive.
Know we have some mutual friends in California.
Thank you for your books,blog & sharing your life.
Best always,Kim
It is a pleasure to receive your blog…inspiring, refreshing and delightful! Thank you.
I love your new look!!! Your blog makes me dream of a trip to France, it’s been ages since I’ve been back, but I feel like I’ve taken a mini-visit after seeing your beautiful photographs.
J’aime les vieilles horloges… J’en possède une qui est magnifique.
merci pour cette belle capture photographique de ce trio de cadrans…
J’adore flâner et repérer de belles choses…
Gros bisous
Thank you for sharing the delights of living in France … it seems so many of us share your passion.
When I worked for Pan Am and could go almost anywhere during my 20 days off each month, I most often chose to go to France…once for just a 3-day weekend. Now, trips are much less frequent and I rely upon your wonderful blog, and its recommendations, for my French moments. Thank you so much!
Leslie in Portland, Oregon