the adventures of young ghetto

Ghetto's life is just one long adventure - his days are quite exhausting.

Being rather a undisciplined  bold dog, he always has to be where the action is, and hates to think he may be missing out on something.  I have developed the habit of checking around my feet before closing the car door, because nine times out of ten, he'll have jumped in behind me

Gibson in true Golden Retriever style, is fairly respectful of house rules here.   Ghetto says he's never heard of rules, be they house or any other.

Which is why yesterday morning I was woken by something warm and wet on my neck, you guessed it. Ghetto had come upstairs, pushed open my bedroom door and decided it was time for everyone to be up and about.  My reaction was to groan and roll over which brought me nose to nose with Gibson.  The look in his eyes said "I do know I'm not meant to be here, but it was his idea, and I thought you might be pleased to see us both after all ... maybe?"

SIGH ....

So they got me out of bed early, which was not such a bad thing, they were fed and sent into the garden, but before long Ghetto was barking.

 I went outside to investigate and found him nose to bristle with a hedgehog.  I put him away once, but he went straight back and started kicking up a fuss again.  So the start to my day was yet further delayed, as - still in my jimjams -  I had to don gardening gloves and wellington boots, and crawl beneath a hedge to grab the hedgehog, then open our gate and cross the road to put him safe from wire-haired fox terriers.  I so hope nobody saw me !

In the afternoon, no doubt worried we may be bored, Ghetto managed to get himself shut inside the guest house, from where he tried to escape via ...... the bedroom window! 

Can you see?    he even ventured out on to the roof and dislodged a tile AAARGH!

Hmmm.... life is going to feel pretty quiet around here, the day Ghetto goes back down to Nice!

Oh and by the way ..... August is going to be a month of giveaways on this little blog - one every Wednesday.  I already have three stunning gifts to be won, but there are five wednesdays in August!  If you have a really cool product that you would like to promote via a giveaway here, just send me an email and I'll see if I can fit you in!

a windy loot shoot

We are alternating sun and clouds, with a fair wind blowing, so I quickly set up the loot shoot then took it all down before everything was blown away.

Up early again this morning - I can hear you groaning "doesn't this woman have a life?!"  Well, yes, actually I do other things besides hunting for brocante, including late dinners, which means that some nights like last night are very short!  :)

So I think I'll just show you these pictures, then find a deck chair somewhere in the garden and settle down with a good book and a cup of tea!

This week I found a very sweet painting of chickens on a hill- so romantic!,  an old tripod that would make a great lamp stand; a large number of 'brand new' old linen hand towels; some white ironstone, an old box of paints;  some charming candle holders for the christmas tree that would actually make great hooks for hand towels in the kitchen and six shoe forms that I think would look great hung on the wall and used as coat hooks!

Hope you're having a lovely weekend, thank you for reading me.

today's traveller

We have many people stop by here, using our cottage as a base for visiting Normandy and Paris, and I love to see how each new set of guests arrive with their particular plans and expectations.

Of course internet and satellite have totally changed the way we travel today.  Sights can be 'visited' before arrival; roads driven down virtually before even entering the country and the menus of local restaurants approved before anyone has a chance to feel hungry.

But what fascinates me each time are the travellers' priorities.  The garden fans will have a long list that starts with Giverny and gradually works further afield; the history buffs will know how long it should take them to get to the landing beaches; the brocante addicts have a calendar of local markets and dealers and the foodies can only think of making beelines for the farmers markets and the best restaurants in the area.

But I hear there is  a new traveller:  the Shopper.  The visitor who is happy to visit the Champs Elysée providing he can queue outside Abercrombie or Louis Vuitton, or for whom the beautiful Quartier St Germain is earmarked only as home to LaDurée.

The iconic department stores Printemps and Galerie Lafayette in Paris, have turned large areas over only to fashionable luxury brands.  If you walk through the store, you may  be surprised to see really long queues in front of the Prada, Gucci and Loewe desks.  Although those makes are available world wide.

So why does this bother me?! .... I have an old fashioned approach to travel - that it is for broadening the mind, for seeing something new, for understanding what is different in the world.

When I travel I really do not want to find a carbon copy of what I know already.  I want to be surprised, to be delighted and to be taken outside my comfort zone.   I love to buy stuff when I travel, but preferably something unique to the destination.  This lust for the big names is part of the shrinking of the world.  The dumbing down of society that scares me so much.  

If I were visiting Paris I would prefer les Invalides to Le Tanneur, Pigalle to Prada, la Bastille to Balmain and le Marais to Mariage and Frères

So tell me frankly, am I hopelessly out of sync with my time, or do you feel the same way?

the chic french swimming pool

We are now back from the south, but my head is still full of beautiful images.  I particularly loved the gardens we saw, designed to encourage a very zen attitude.  Soft colours, careful planting and a great deal of attention paid to pool design.

I am loving these toned down colours for pool and pool side.  Turquoise can look harsh, these more natural shades just look elegant.

I also like the long narrow pool, not only practical for swimming lengths, but also so well adapted to sleek garden design.

inspiration found in a Provence château

While in the South, I was lucky enough to meet rather an extraordinary French lady, living in an 18th century château, ... with an art gallery in her garden.

Sabine Puget is passionate about art and the importance of art in everyday life.  When she and her husband bought their château some years back, she was brave enough to create a gallery and open its doors to the public.

She quickly ran out of space, but boldly created extra display areas around the gallery, stark modern shapes, that fit into her breathtaking property effortlessly, and whose brick red colour echoes the beautiful patina on the château walls.

The gallery is open from May to September, and she creates two exhibitions each season.    I was fascinated to visit the current show, which combines and juxtaposes the work of two artists:  a photographer who likes to shoot pictures of old catalogues of plant collections, and a sculptor  who is passionate about granite, marble and stone.

All through the show, sculptures, large and small, echo the beautiful black and white photos on the walls.

 To add interest to the already breathtaking sculptures, they are created to move and to turn upon themselves.

The garden around the gallery and the house is carefully planted to emphasise the presence of the gallery.  Walking around the grounds, this visitor sometimes gasped at the beauty of an unexpected artwork, whose silver grey wood or subtle stone, reflects the soft Provençal light.

In a corner of the garden is a tiny chapel, long since abandoned when Sabine and her husband bought the property.  It is now restored with evocative paintings on the wall and unique stained glass windows, and has become the subject of a small book.

This stunning property is perfectly maintained and designed but never overwhelming.  At every corner there is a reminder that this is first and foremost a home, owned by a couple who have understood the importance of life's simple pleasures.  Be it a striking work of art; sitting in a simple deck chair in the shade of an old chestnut tree, or hearing grand children play pétanque outside the house.

So if you find yourself in the south of France this summer, and you would like to visit Sabine's gallery, simply contact her or turn up on a sunny summer afternoon and refresh your body and mind as you breathe in the utter beauty of her property and the art she cares to show.