Antiques, France, Marrakesh & Sunday Lunches with Friends.

Hello from
Arundel Eccentrics Antiques



Here's some of our latest antique pieces.
We've had enormous fun
with our latest
Noahs Ark
Victorian Chest of drawers.

music on a 19th century chest.......

old French wallpaper rollers.....
make great lamps....

Great Western railway clerks stool...19th century

gorgeous chapel chairs....

music on a 19th century bamboo table

"Make new friends but keep the old

One is like silver the other gold"

English proverb

Where Oh where is the year going?

Had a great lunch with dear friends on Sunday.

Julie and Rudi are antique dealers.
They have a fantastic warehouse in Runction near Chichester.

http://www.antiques-trade-warehouse.co.uk/


Usually we go for lunch in the summer and
dine alfresco, before walking along the beach across the road.

This time though it was dark and cold and we
stayed in their gorgeous kitchen/ dining room.

Warm and cosy.

Rudi used to be a chef and  together they ran
a delightful Italian Restaurant in Chichester
a few years ago, called Puncinella.

My chum Allie and I helped decorate it.

Anyway my point being,
when we go there to lunch
we have the most incredible meals.

last time we went to the local park afterwards
 for fitness training Ha Ha 

The beach is fantastic....we all love to walk along the sand.
Millie loves to swim.....

Here are a few photos of their warehouse...these are old pictures,

but it will give you an idea.

If you like chandeliers they are the people to go to.

In June I flew to Bordeaux to see old nursing friends......
We trained in Brighton together many years ago.

 Friends I've known

 since I was 18 years old. 

We trained as nurses at

 The Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton and 

The Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital
 that was then in Dyke Road, Brighton.

Royal Alexandra

The  Victorian Alex 

fell into a derelict state in 2007 

when the children's hospital moved to

the Royal Sussex County.

I believe it's been demolished to build posh penthouses.

Tragic, as the building was really beautiful with many original features.

Nursing friends

Over the years we kept in touch...mostly by letters ....oh yes we did in those days.....and telephone , you know,

the one attached to the house. LOL

Two of the friends have lived in or near Annecy,

 in the Haute Savoie for many years.

We used to visit most summers.

Beautiful n'est pas?

my lovely Jay when he was a boy, he loved Annecy....where do those years go?

We've met up in some gorgeous places over the past few years.

Paris. Nice. Barcelona.  Marrakech.

One Week in Marrakesh

 Washington and Virginia

  when we all went to my  son

 Jay's wedding two years ago.

The  fun we have, even after all those years.

Chrissie now lives near Bordeaux.

  A beautiful house in a quiet location. 

Peaceful. 

Swimming  pool, space to breathe and make time to  think.

There were five of us.

Early every morning, before the day grew hot,

  we walked  Millie their dog.
Funny how all my friends dogs seem to be called Millie.

Chrissie introduced us to places we

 would never have found otherwise in such a short time.

One morning we met with her local friends.

They walk together

 once a week.

Afterwards all return to one of their

 houses for coffee and cake.

A lovely group to walk with.

Chatty and interesting.

Millie 

The route we took  quite beautiful.

My camera was in overdrive.

The one wet day we had we drove to Arcachon and climbed the massive sand dunes.

Night markets are something we don't have in England.

I wonder if they have them in other parts of France?

It would work really well in Arundel.

The only down side would be the weather.

They appear to be village and small town affairs

 where families and friends all turn out, meet up and dine together.

There are food and drink tents

 and communal tables and benches. 

Often  music. 

time to meet friends and put the world to rights.

Le Quartorze Juillet.

A big celebration  in France.  But where to go?

Not knowing the area we went to one of the local towns

 where there were to be celebrations by the river.

HMmmmmm.

We decided it just wasn't happening. 

No, defo not happening here.

There was a DJ playing mainly to the single line of 13

year old girls jumping up and down in front of the stage.

Sitting at a long trestle table each nursing a glass of rose,

 we looked around and decided to go somewhere else.

We drove to Chrissie's nearest town.

Wonderful. More life here. The town square was bustling.

We beamed at each other.

This was more like it 

Yep this would be great fun.

 Fireworks were imminent.

It was late in the evening by then and we were all hungry.

"Let's see if the restaurant is open and we can

 eat at the same time as watch fireworks."

The  maître d at the restaurant, although it was about to close,

 said we could have pizza and  wine.

We settled ourselves at one of the outside tables and ordered.

The waiter was hilarious . 

He spoke pretty good English 

 with a tinge of sarcasm and the

 merest hint of 'ello 'ello to his voice.

The entire square of people,

 complete with bands and marjorettes

 marched past us through the square

 and disappeared out of sight.

"Where are they all going?" We asked mine host.

"They are all going to watch the fireworks.

 Ha ha You'll hear them.....but you won't see them from here. "

"Maybe we will be able to watch them after"

"No, no I will take so long to serve you they will have finished"

He was actually joking about taking his time intentionally.

We didn't however see them.

You couldn't see one spark

 from where we sat.

The townspeople had all walked to the safely

 of a sports field and watched the display.

Ah well, nothing else for it but to enjoy the pizza and wine.

"anything up there?"

We had just finished when the entire town, returned.

They  marched past where we were sitting.

The band playing music, 

the marjorettes twirling their batons and skirts

and the children screaming and laughing.

Ah well.

We enjoyed the remainder of the evening.

our chum Julie being swept off her feet LOL

We had some wonderful days wandering round the markets.

and car boots..............................

where my friend had another admirer.

The car boot was in a great location for a blistering hot day.
Under the shade of the trees it was so cool.

It was great to relax for a week.

We walked, spent time by the pool,

ate and drank......

but most importantly........

We laughed our socks off.

Have a great day

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The Hoarde