quest for armoires part III

Well theres apparently something about selling armoires that drives you a little crazy, because we had another experience with an eccentric old lady and furniture today. This shop was in the same area as the consignment place, but was HUGE! Not huge as in a warehouse, but like a rabbit warren; there were rooms upon rooms filled with junk: half finished model boats with pillowcase sails, giant industrial sanding machines, stacks of chairs, knick knacks crammed into every corner, a second level with a room full of clocks, bedframes, copper pots, and on and on. There was one room with planks in one corner with so much dust on them that it looked like snow (but not quite the right color!). The old lady who ran the store was "a bit" less distinguished than the last place, and spoke very quickly, in a stream of consciousness style: yesthisone isbeautifulthreepanelsonthesidebutyoumuststepbacktotrulyappreciateit (breath as she steps back) itsRUSTICnotrefinedbut verybeautifulyoucanseeinsideohwaititslockedletmegogetthekey (walking away) sometimespeoplestealthekeysanditsveryannoying. I should back up and say that the nicer stuff was in the front of the store, so as we walked in, we were suitably impressed by the tall armoires with beautiful patinas. We were therefore a little confused when she said "Oh, but I dont have any more armoires!". The confusion came from the fact that we were standing in the middle of a room FULL of tall cupboards that looked suspiciously like armoires. I looked at Chlo to see if I should start laughing, but no, she was apparently serious. It turned out that the tall cupboards are called Bonnetieres, and are still way too expensive for us. But we learned something new today: what a Bonnatiere is (narrower than an armoire, and with only one door)! as well as the word for Beech: Hetre. Tomorrow we leave for St. Leger du Ventoux for some steep climbing, sightseeing and armoire hunting near Isle-sur-la-sorgue.

The search for furniture, part II

Part I was the flea market, of course. After checking out store that sells furniture on consignment and having a beautiful chest of drawers bought from under our noses, we went into town to look at more Armoires (I promise this will be more interesting than it sounds). We wandered into a small store, which was crammed to capacity with furniture and paintings. And when I say "capacity", I mean a room about 15 feet x 20 feet with a small path (~2 feet wide) in between the tables, chairs, armoires etc. Off to the left of the entrance, sitting on one of the chairs was an old woman; a guru of furniture. She looked about 90 years old, with a shrub of white hair and thick glasses out of which peered eyes which seemed to focus 2 feet behind you. She was also a little hard of hearing, so her greeting caught both of us by surprise. HELLO! ARE YOU LOOKING FOR SOMETHING IN PARTICULAR? (I've taken the liberty of translating all of the dialogue) When we expressed some interest in an armoire, we were firmly corrected that ITS NOT AN ARMOIRE! ITS AN HOMME DEBOUT! and then she went on in some detail about why it was called an "homme debout", and then told us that it had already been sold. But it turned out that she wasn't saying "vendu" at all, but something that sounded like "Vendu" which was the region in which it was made (somewhere South of Bretagne I think?). Chloe and I looked at it with covetousness as the lady shouted "ITS MADE OF CHERRY!" from about 2 feet behind us. We moved on to a truly stunning armoire (this time a real armoire), at which point the real owner (the older lady's daughter), an elegant lady of about 60, reappeared. Things got a little confusing with both of them talking to us; the older lady in rock concert volume, and her daughter at normal volume (at the same time of course). The younger one explained how this armoire (late 1700s) was from the transition period "ON THE HORSE BETWEEN TWO STYLES!" Louis XV and Louis XVI "NEITHER LOUIS XV nor XVI!". We could see this in the straight flutings "LOOK AT THE CANNELURES!" on the sides as well "LOUIS QUINZE STYLE CURVES AT THE BASE" as the curves at the base. One of the really distinguishing things about this armoire compared to others we have seen were the beautiful emblems on the top face, in the middle and sides. "ITS MADE ENTIRELY OF WALNUT!", they both went on, in unison. It was a gorgeous armoire, but sadly, at $2500 euro (almost $3000) it was pretty far out of our budget. On the other hand, something like that is beautiful to look at every day, will last forever , and only increase in value. Even so, its a lot of money!