Antique hunting in France - Part 1

Of course, there are many other countries to look for lovely decorative antiques in and go on an antique hunt, however, France is still one of the key places to go, whether it is for French antiques or even Swedish, Italian, Spanish or Dutch antiques – furniture, garden items and decorative antique items can all be found there…but it’s a question of where!

I recently came back from my travels down in the South of France for my last hunt at the trade antique fairs which take place in locations including Béziers, towards the south-west of France, and back up to Montpellier and Avignon. Of course, none of these fairs take place in the historic quarters of these towns and cities but out in huge exhibition parks that host many other events throughout the year. Friends say, ooh, lucky you, off to the South of France again – and yes, of course it is lovely, and you can be there in the beautiful Spring, in June when fresh cherries hang heavily off trees for miles and the lavender fields are at their finest. However, roll on November and February and it can be another story – it can still rain in Provence and be very cold and wet! However, on this recent trip to France earlier in November, whilst it was a bit cold, the sun mostly shone. The days are not for the faint hearted. Early starts – you need to have parked your car by 7.15am, otherwise you will just sit in a queue of traffic…then, you hang out at the gates with hundreds of exhibitors and trade buyers all clamouring to get inside to their stands or to buy at 8am on the dot….and having stood in occasionally a fug of Gitanes wafting in the early hours and a couple of mobile coffee bars, the gates open and there is a surge…the Harrods sale day hasn’t seen anything yet! There is no point in racing, and yet, you have to be quick, decisions have to be made in a blink of an eye…you snooze, you loose. So, whilst some items of furniture can grab your eye immediately, the price just may be too much to make a turn after the cost of transport and now all the customs fees that have come to play since we left the EU. I don’t know how many exhibitors there must be at these antiques fairs, I’ve never counted (too busy working out if I can buy something), but at Avignon alone, there are 6 enormous halls and much outside space that throngs with dealers from other parts of France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, The Netherlands and more. Buyer dealers come from the UK, other parts of France too, Belgium and the US. It’s quite frankly mad! So, quite often, by 10am, you’ve either bought or you’ve missed it so then it’s a strong cup of coffee and a croissant, hopefully in the sunshine on a small patch where a café churns out caffeine (and even beers and rosé was being asked for at 10am last time!).

And then it’s onwards to have a mooch around a few other spots where there might be some pickings, but you never know, pickings can be great and they can be slim. But the hunt is fun – unless I am sourcing antiques for somebody specific, I don’t always have in mind what I might buy – I know the things I like – dining tables, refectory tables, draper’s tables, small buffets, pretty Swedish chairs, French decorative antiques…and then something comes across your bow like an Italian armoire, and bingo, it draws you in and new ideas come to be for your stock of antiques to sell.

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