I’m so very excited to share some pics from my recent buying trip to Europe that my wonderful hubby took along the way. This is one of the rare times I will post pics of myself, but I love the way Joel shot me doing what I love. To see even more from our adventures head over to My French Country Home where Sharon has posted more of the scenic part of our trip! So much beauty!

So here is a quick photo tour of our journey across the beautiful countryside of France. Entering the gates of our home away from home…that of the Santoni Family…

The cottage we called home for two weeks…

our furry friends Gibson and Ghetto…

and our view of the gorgeous home of Sharon Santoni …

How our days began…

Driving past fields of green, and the most beautiful scenes you could ever dream up…

Through small villages that you think only exist in the movies…

vibrant colors that feel more like a painting than reality…

We went to so many dealers and country fairs it would have been next to impossible to capture every aspect of our journey….but here is a glimpse. That’s me, getting in every nook and cranny to see what can be found!  And sometimes you gotta climb ladders to get the one (or 20) you want!    We took time to stop at beautiful churches (there’s at least one in every village) and we were always excited to see the ones with the doors open welcoming anyone to come in and admire the beauty within.     I can’t hardly express how lucky we felt to come home to this house everyday after a long day of pickin’…It is even more magical in person! Unloading a truck full of goodies into Sharon’s barn and driveway was an experience all on it’s own…. Joel loved taking Gibby on walks up to see Sharons horses and all the beauty surrounding their home… We met so many friends along the way… And shopped in the most beautiful places I could ever imagine. Drooled over gorgeous chateau’s hiding in the trees… Stopped at the most beautiful places for lunch and got right back to the pickin’ always finding time to stop and smell the beautiful flowers along the way. At the end of every day we would unload the truck and photograph all of the finds of the day….and yes, this is one days worth!  And most days ended in a celebratory glass of champgne….When in France!

And the next day we would head right back out to new and fabulous places full of amazing things….

Seriously though…. Loved all of the stores full of amazing pieces And made lots of new friends I can’t wait to get back to visit! You don’t find antiique stores like this in our neck of the woods! Joel wasn’t with me for the first four days of the journey, but he did have the pleasure (maybe not the word he would use) of going back to all of the places I had bought from and barns I had stored all of my treasures to pick everything up….

On our second to the last night in Normandy we stayed at this beautiful chateau near the next days flea market in Amiens. A day I will never forget. Heading there at o’dark thirty and spending our last day tackling the ten sqaure miles of a city that shuts down the streets for this fair….pure heaven! Gotta have lots of bags to load smalls in along the way, because one of my least favorite things to do is waste time going back and forth to the car and to pick things up! I just like to keep moving forward! Not a bad backdrop for shopping, right? I had bought this cart from a dealer knowing it would be the perfect way for us to load things up in Amiens. Luckily Joel is an amazingly supportive husband who loaded this thing to the max time after time and took it back to the truck to unload, and meet back up with us to load it up again.

This last picture is of my favorites, taken by Joel on his phone. It was the end of our last day, our final hours of shopping in a little piece of heaven on earth and I couldn’t get enough! The rain didn’t bother me. The shopping all day on 4 hours sleep, no big deal. The thought of leaving this place, however, was not easy! I just love it all so much. The thrill of finding beautiful things and bringing them back to be appreciated by so many…I never get sick of it. I get butterflies on my way to every flea market, every dealer, every purchase…..I love it, and because of this, know I am doing exactly what I should be.

Thanks for making it through this entire post! And to think, this is only part one!

Oh, and if you would like an inside look at one of my favorite warehouses we visited, check out this GoPro video Joel shot!

~jeni