French Antiques Buying Trip

Bonjour from France! Greg and I landed in Paris at the weekend on an antiques buying trip around Northern France, Belgium and England. Come along for the ride! We've been posting more photos as we go on our EuroLux Facebook page so you can follow us there too and see pictures of the treasures we find.

Our first stop in France? We immediately hit the famous antique market in Saint Ouen. This market is in a suburb of Paris just north of the popular tourist area of Montmartre which is crowned by the lovely Sacré-Cœur Basilica.

French Antiques and French Glamor

There was lots to see, and sometimes the most wonderful antiques are tucked away in unexpected places so you have to keep your eyes wide open! This started getting difficult by the time we'd spent the day antiques shopping. We could barely keep our eyes open at all with the jet lag kicking in! So we decided to visit the Basilica of Saint-Denis. As you can see, it was a perfect sunny day.

The Basilica of Saint-Denis was the very first Gothic cathedral ever built. It has been on my bucket list for many years and was even more beautiful in person! Many of our French antiques are inspired by designs just like this.

The Basilica is in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris. The choir was completed in 1144 and was the first example of a building that used all the elements of Gothic architecture.

We sell quite a lot of antique French Gothic furniture and new pieces with Gothic influences, so it was fascinating to see the building that led the way for this entire style!

Stained Glass

The stained glass is exquisite, as you can see from this rose window. Most French kings between the 10th and the 18th centuries were buried here at the Basilica, and French Queens were often crowned here too. It became a place of pilgrimage for many.

Then we headed off to Normandy and Brittany for a few days, in search of more French antiques. In Normandy one of my favorite picks of the day was this gorgeous antique prie-dieu prayer chair circa 1890.  I always buy a prie-dieu chair when I find a good one! Prie-dieu literally means "Pray god" and people use it as a knee rest in their prayers and as a support for prayer books. We'll reupholster the padded knee rest in red velvet.

Sometimes when you're on the road on an antiques buying trip, things don't turn out quite as expected. Greg and I have learned that if the addresses on your list don't pan out but there is a massive chateau nearby, stop for the chateau instead!  This is in the medieval part of Fougeres, on the Brittany-Normandy border.

We hope you enjoyed this glimpse into our antiques buying trip in France. More photos and stories to follow and you can see more from our journey on our Facebook page! To see more of our buying trips, check out our post here!