Hunting for Antiques and Lunch in France
When I was asked to write this article I knew that I was going to be rumbled at last. For over thirty years I have been going over to France for lunch and bringing a few pieces of furniture back as cover. Sadly while the price of lunch has remained extraordinarily modest, the cover charge, to coin a phrase, has increased enormously!
Back in the late sixties I was dealing in Hay-on-Wye on the Welsh border, and every week the Irish tinkers were hauling out vast lorry-loads of good Welsh oak. It never occurred to us that it might all come to an end, but today if one good piece appears at auction, dealers come running from all over the country. As the supplies began to run thin, we looked further afield for bargains, and French farmhouse tables were just what we needed. They were wonderfully cheap, and you could slip them in among the Welsh oak without anybody noticing. American interest in France was fanned by the publication of books by so-called style gurus such as Pierre Deux, with beautiful photographs of sun-drenched farmhouses and bucolic natives feasting on cheese and wine. A rustic dream was born.
There are of course so many different areas of France to buy in. Normandy in the 18th century must have been one of the most prosperous yeoman-farming areas – they managed perfectly well without EU subsidies in those days – so every farmhouse had good quality furniture in oak or cherrywood. As farming incomes have fallen in recent years, the values of the household contents have risen, which is one of the reasons why so much country furniture has appeared on the market lately. I have been into farmhouses to extract tables and buffets where the owners gave the impression of abject poverty, and they were clearly only parting with their furniture because they had to.
Normandy and Brittany are still great sources for country furniture, although the supply is beginning to look a little thin. For more sophisticated items one has to travel further south, to the bigger cities such as Bordeaux or Lyons, or further down again into Provence, where an entirely different look prevails. For the last ten years the painted commodes and armoires of the South have been all the rage, and while original items are both expensive and rare, a whole industry has sprung up painting and repainting to supply the markets of northern Europe and America. It’s a beautiful and decorative look, and no wonder that it is so popular.
Paradoxically it was a happier hunting ground for the professional dealer before the advent of the EU. You were only allowed to take things out of France if they were under 100 years old, and they had to be more than 100 years old to avoid duty in the UK. So invoices were switched in mid-Channel and everything grew mysteriously older. And you had to go through ponderous customs checks each side of the water; it was a job for serious professionals only, whereas now any jackass with a roof rack can have a field day!
So where shall I send you for lunch? The Café des Marchands in Guerche de Bretagne does wonderful meat grilled over an open fire of vine roots. The eponymous hotel in St. James is best ever value; two fat ladies serve you more than you can eat for under ten euros. The best pork chops are in a dreary café at the top end of Brecey. But you can find your own delights, and you will need a handy lay-by for a little snooze later on.
And the best dealers? Damn, I’m out of space! Happy hunting!
