The Washerwoman: May 2009

Monday, 18 May 2009

Come Dancing....

While I was in France recently I bought a scruffy looking old photograph album... inside we found gems of a forgotten age.....

What attracts me to these photographs are of course the wonderful flamboyant dresses and great hairstyles. I also love the amount of people in one frame, it is to great effect and if you click on these images you should also be able to see more detail.

The one below intrigues me, why is the woman precariously standing at the back leaning against the wiggly pillars?

I am planning to frame these photographs, some I will take to fairs to sell and others I will keep and add to my growing collection of "Lost People". A customer I met at a fair some time ago taught me this phrase as she had a collection of old photographs that had no history or attachment to her life or family. I realised that over the past 25 years I have also accumulated a collection of "lost people".... there is a 1930's family of four strolling along a promenade in our bathroom.. there are a collection of 1940's people outside a train station in our breakfast room and there is a dreamy young 1970's french woman at the top of the stairs.....

Monday, 4 May 2009

What I love about France.......

Just got home from a wonderful few days in France. The weather was mixed as you can see, but here are some of the things that caught my eye. I love the stunning architecture of the cathedrals.

I love the fact that you can buy delicious sausages from barbecue-stands on every street corner on market day....

Secret gardens behind beautiful rusty old gates, and beautiful domestic architecture.

Very shabby Vide Greniers in the middle of small towns. Unlike the Car boots sales in this country everyone is relaxed and jolly, happy to haggle and they make a day of it. Even the rain doesn't deter the French, they just cover their stands with clear plastic sheeting and stand under their umbrella until it stops.

The lilac was particularly prolific this year, as was the wisteria and blossom.

Sunset over the graveyard, not a blade of grass in sight.. very French!

I love this old painted sign above the cottage where we stayed....

Flower shops bursting with colour were so tempting. I could have filled the back of the car with pots of hydrangea......

Another street market with an amazing cupboard that I would have loved to have brought home, but the car was filling up fast with vintage dresses, old linen smocks, flowery textiles, picture frames & some very pretty enamel teapots & jugs!

... and where else could you buy an ancient Mercedes hearse for £900!!!!! (but I resisted the temptation!!!!)