A Tenderness for Living: Another April, another fabulous French antique fair

I haven't had time to write for awhile, but wanted to share my latest trip to the Foire Internationale Antiquaire, held in the main park in Isle-sur-la-Sorgue and along the quais that line the canals. It's held every April and August and this year's spring event was not quite as spectacular as in previous years -- it rained off and on and was cold -- but all-in-all still quite lively and well worth the day.

I must have been missing my son, who is in India for six months, because I took rather a lot of pictures of children mixed in with the bric-a-brac and treasures. Whatever the motivation, the kids were awfully cute and there were quite a lot of them along with their parents. I especially enjoyed watching a tow headed California kid playing with the military surplus. He was in heaven.

This year the fair had a central section devoted to industrial design. And, of course, there were quite a number of unusual, high priced items. But amid all this there were some real bargains and I came away with a set of four, rusted and mismatched iron garden chairs that I've been using in the dining room quite happily over the last few weeks.

But the best thing I took away from this year's fair were memories of cheerful conversations with vendors and shoppers and a bunch of images in my head and camera that I wanted to share with you.