From the moment we drove past this lovely field of past their prime sunflowers, our fall shopping trip was a whirlwind. Come along for a behind the scenes peek.
Just beyond the sunflower field was our home away from home for the first three days - Le Passage des Grives.
Our hosts hosted apéro each evening, cooked for us, made room for our treasures in their barn.
It was the perfect home base from which to explore the countryside by day and restore ourselves by night.
Our first day started out with a bang as we discovered this lovely set of opaline glass with hand painted gold details, some hotel silver and an antique marble hand that I may keep for myself.
Some evenings we would get back in time to have an espresso in the garden and catch up on paperwork. Others we returned just in time to get six or seven hours of sleep before rising for an early start the next morning.
From the south, we worked our way back to Lyon popping into brocantes, visiting our favorite dealers, and rising early for markets.
Mid-way through the trip we made one of my favorite stops - the village of Cluny. When I think of a village in the French countryside, Cluny is what comes to mind.
A stroll through Cluny is heavenly. We visit the abbey. We stop at the bakery for Portuguese tarts and canelés. . We pop in on our favorite dealers. We always find something so special in Cluny. On our last trip we found a collection of sketches drawn by Theophile Steinlen. This time we found a vintage movie poster from the year Taxi Driver won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. I never know what we'll find, but I know it will always be something special.
Toward the end of the trip we arrived at Hotel Verdun 1882, where we were told one of you lovely readers had just checked out after a long stay.
Hotel Verdun always feels like home, but never more than this trip when we checked into our room with this array of New Yorker covers over our bed.
Our usual Lyonnaise dealers never fail to disappoint. They served up menthe à l'eau and beautiful treasures in equal measure.
And now we wait. New treasures are landing early November. But meanwhile, keep one eye on elsiegreen.com. We are still releasing beautiful old souls from our spring trip every week, right up until the new container arrives.