Be still my beating heart!

No trip to France is complete without a trip (or 3) to a brocante which is basically like a junk shop but with a huge variety of goods. Luckily there is a very good one just 6km from Nic and Johns house which I just have to go to every time we visit. The guy who runs it has odd opening hours though so you have to keep popping back just to check if he is open or not - suits me fine! Not all the goodies are from this one shop - the first picture is from a different brocante.

I spotted these in a brocante that we haven't been to before but luckily I now know where it is! The large one now holds my fruity tea bags and the smaller one just looks pretty next to it! These were 3 euros for the pair.

Matt spotted this Arthur Wood dog money box and I'm so glad he did. It cost 2 euros and Tara adores it and keeps stroking him!

These 2 lots of linen were bundled into a bag. I think the top ones were used on the edge of a shelf and I'm not sure about the bottom one. I will come up with a way of using both of them though!

This beautiful ledger just screamed to me when I saw it. I was thrilled that it was battered and broken already as I won't now feel guilty at using it! It is from the 19th century, 1866 was the first entry. I haven't had chance to look at it properly and see what it was a ledger for but I'm sure I will investigate soon. The last picture of the bunch also shows some letters that were tucked away at the back.

This crochet book is so cute - someone has taken the time to write down instructions for different types of crochet they have made. Pity I don't crochet (yet) and pity it's all in French! I'm sure I'll find some use for it soon though :)

The 'local' brocante always has lots of postcards in it and I love (time permitting) to search through them all to see what I can find. I favour ones with people on rather than views.

At at the bottom of one of the poatcard boxes was this miniature photograph (about the size of a passport photograph) This French soldier will be used in some artwork soon.

These books all have pages missing/writing in them and I think the guy in the brocante was pleased to see them go! The Dick Bruna one will stay as a book as the girls think it is hilarious when I read to them in French!

And this is what made me say out loud 'Be Still My Beating Heart'!! I did mutter it so i don't think anyone else heard me - there were more gasps when I opened it!

Lots of fabulous paint for me to experiment with :) I'm not a painter by any means but I do like experimenting!

And the best bit was that the paint set, the ledger, the books, postcards and the linen came in at 10 euros!!! And I was good and resisted a box of vintage buttons :)