I have now been working Brocantes in the south of France for over 6 months and have noticed something very significant about our presumptions (english) about french taste and style. Now this subject is totally open for discussion and I'm not saying that I am right.........but I think the world has been deceived over the years about French taste and style. Over the last six months I have seen many French people buy (at Brocantes and vide greniers) some of the most appaling and tasteless stuff that in the UK we would chuck. For example.....recently, I had a lovely old bed, about a 100 years or more old........found in a convent in France, I was only selling it for 60 euros. Next to me, another brocanteur had a modern metal white bed (with brass bits) up for sale at 100 euros. A couple came along......looked at my bed then went to my neighbour and promptly bought the white bed.......aaagh....not because I wanted the sale .....but just aaarrrgh. Have you noticed in all the books on French style and houses (provence, normandy, brittany etc) that the houses featured belong to english, german and dutch, very rarely a french person and if they are french they are parisien and have a second house in provence! So, this is an ongoing debate.....to finish my observation, I was recently told that a French electrician was doing some work for an english couple in their converted old farmhouse, at the the time he was just about to purchase a new villa type house.....however, he was so impressed with the renovation of the old Mas that he changed his mind, showed the wife the renovate dhouse and they promptly bought an old farmhouse and started to renovate. Deards
