Excess Baggage

So, you want to buy antiques, perhaps more than a few and not just any antiques - you want the good stuff.  French, Belgium, Italian, Swedish ... you're there and these irresistible morsels are calling your name.  Too big to tuck into that extra suitcase.  You're in France and you're in love.  In love with your treasures, the ones you've discovered at the brocantes, the faires, the antique shops, the vide-greniers.  And they desperately need to go home with you. How do you get them there? Just ship them, of course. I really hope you are truly, desperately in love with, can't live with out them - because when it comes to shipping, you are in for a major sticker shock.

An antique dealer buys in many ways much the same as you would.  We buy what we love.  We buy what we long to keep.  We are passionate about what we do. We hunt.  It sounds romantic and  I guess it is.  Provence in the Spring is wonderful and the brocantes beckon.  Strolling through aisles with anticipation that makes your heart race is intoxicating and addictive. The cost analysis,  ummm...... not so much.  

Do you know how large a 40' container is?  I'm sure you've seen them on the highways.  Instead of a normal semi truck, they are the ones pulling a huge metal container usually marked with a name that conjures up flash backs of Indiana Jones.  A 40' container is 66.8 cubic meters.  It is the size of a large moving van, one that can move the entire household of a family of 5 cross country including everything Grandmama ever accumulated and could never throw out.

So, we shop.  A lot.  Here is your homework.  What does it cost to ship a 26" x 48" Louis Phillipe Mirror from Avignon to your home?

Salut!
Lynn

Remembering

My children, now grown, used to come home to Andre Boccelli blaring at a level I would have told them would permantely damage their hearing. They would look at each other and know that I was in my "Europe" mode. We had lived in Brussels for 4 years and I loved it. Every bit of it including the endless cloudy days, the rain, the lack of parking,,, and the lifestyle, the bread, the markets, the wine and cheeses, and let's not forget .. the antiques. But, best of all. as a mother, the lack of tv, no drivers license for teenagers, restaurants that forced you to take your time and enjoy your meal .. time spent together as a family.

I count my blessings. My children. My time here in France doing what I love ...hunting. Hunting for antiques.

Watching sunrises and sunsets over hilltop villages. Wandering through alleys where views and history beg you to whisper in awe one moment and listen for the trumpets sounding in the next.

Blessings where my friends at home sent me off with their best wishes and toast to my success. I miss you.

Blessed. How sweet the sound.

Salut!
Lynn