Welcome to Our First Blog – Back from France with Brocante Treasures

Welcome to our very first blog! We’re now back home in the UK for the winter, which means it’s time to roll up our sleeves and start sorting, photographing, and listing our latest brocante finds.

We returned home last week after a final whirlwind five-day trip to France, squeezing in visits to two of our favourite brocante markets: Flixecourt and Bray-sur-Somme, both conveniently close to our French mobile home. As always, we took along our trusty market trolley — and on this trip, it was definitely working at full capacity!

We filled that trolley four times, and each journey back to the van was tougher than the last. While we absolutely love the Flixecourt brocante (with its impressive 1,500 stalls), the town sits in a dip… meaning we are always parked at the top of a hill. And yes — that hill somehow seems to get steeper every year!

With a van packed to the brim and an overnight hotel stop to break up the long drive home, we eventually arrived back in the UK to a typically wet and chilly Lancashire day. We unloaded the van, quickly realised we’d already filled our stockroom, and then spent the following day trying to find space for everything — no small task!

Just as we were getting organised, the dreaded Covid struck, forcing us to take an unexpected week off. Thankfully, our fabulous daughter — who processes all our orders while we’re in France — came to the rescue and kept everything running smoothly while we rested and felt rather sorry for ourselves.

We’re now just about back to fighting fit and ready to get listing again. Keep an eye out for our next blog and plenty of new vintage French treasures coming soon.

Have a lovely weekend,
Louise
All Things French Store