seeking food, wine and antiques in france

After spending several days in the UK, it was off for many days in the south of France and Normandy. The TGV is always a treat for us. The train to Avignon is just simply glamorous. Arriving at the train station in Avignon is special. A charming station the shopping down south is always spectacular for us. The unique pieces we seem to uncover, never disappoints us. Within one hour we found this zinc top store counter, with such detail and character, it took our breath away.

That evening we checked into another unique place in our journey. We barely came down from the emotion of staying at Callow Hall, when we chose to stay at a place called La Bastide Rose. We were told by friends that Pierre Salinger, press secretary to President Kennedy, had married a French woman 20 years ago and moved to a small town , called Le Thor.

Pierre Salinger passed away a couple of years ago, but his widow Poppy and step son Emmanuel run this very special place. We spent 3 days there and spent as much time as we could with Emmanuel. His love for his step dad was quite apparent and really touched us. That very first evening Emmanuel and his brother cooked us dinner. There were other guests eating dinner with us that evening. All of it, adds to the warmth of the inn. A very nice couple , The Mcmurrich's spent Friday evening with us, where we all enjoyed the once in a lifetime stories about Pierre Salinger's life, through the eyes of his son Emmanuel. We could barely break ourselves away the next day to find more treasures. We did however and what we found the next day, was astounding.

The first find was the most charming doe rising table we had ever seen in our life.Walnut, Circa 1850. We were almost singing with joy and went to our next dealer and before coming down from the clouds from that find, we found a "coffee stand" from a small train station, with a marble top. I wont even show you the other side, which has charming drawers. You will just have to call me for the image or better yet, come pay us a visit, when the container arrives.

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