vive les berkshires!

In Avignon, we love to stay at the Hotel d’Europe, which has been one of the best in Provence since the 18th Century. (See, even the hotels we like are antiques.) Antiquing in Avignon is quite different from northern England. For one thing, there are far more dealers – it’s almost like being in the Berkshires (except that everyone speaks French). For another, the English work straight through lunch. If you’re hungry around noon in England, an antique dealer might hand you a uninspiring cheese sandwich and continue showing you around. In France, lunch isn’t just a meal, it’s a religion. All work ceases for at least 2 hours when it’s time for le dejeuner.

The range of antiques is also greater in France, but you do notice some trends. For instance, we bought seven enormous vintage clocks (they were once used in church steeples and banks) from six different dealers.

Alas, they no longer work, but if you have a wall large enough for one if these, they will provide endless hours of beauty.

Before we headed back to Paris on the TGV, we went to a beautiful Provencal village whose name is so apt, that it’s Apt.

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