LE PETIT CABINET DE CURIOSITES

MY TREASURES

old photo of turkish seller

I hope to bring back some suzani , I love them so much even they come form ouzbekhistan , I'm sure I can find some in the Grand Bazar

some loukoums , because I love sweets

some metal things ...I don't know what

SOME ANTIQUES ...

some pashmina for my friends : frederique , sandrine and isabelle ....

and some wonderful souvenirs ...

CONSTANTINOPLE

HAVE YOU GUESSED

I am in Istanbul , the old constantinople

My origins

Do you think I'm going to have a ride in this beautiful " calèche" ?

Today , thanks to the bloglandia world I'm suposed to meet Nathalie from du bretzel au simit .
I will tell you more when I'm back

voyage

Today, I'm flying to one of my origins

do you think , I will take this plane ??

This is my "antiques side " .

Guess where am I going ?

This is where I am going ..Do you where is it ?

The mother of my grand mother was from there ...

I'm very excited

I will be back on the 3rd with a lot of pictures.

While I'm there I will also post but without my pictures

SAINT AMOUR

TODAY in france we are celebrated the feast of Saint Amour ( LOVE )

So it is the perfect day to celebrate the feast of my family .

You have already " met" my DAD YVES , let's remember his work

Before and after : original XVIII th century Louis XVI chair with its original sheen ( on the left ) and the same chair but unfortunatly my dad will have to give a sheen to it .

My dad's creation : a Louis XV style " cabriolet" with a modern Designer Guild Fabric and he made the patina

my SISTER CLARISSE , let's see what she can do

THAT IS CLARISSE'S FIRST WORK THAT IS TO SAY FROM THE 1ST STEP TO THE LAST

PATINA ,UPHOLSTERY .... ISN'T SHE TOO GOOD ????

but I haven't told you antyhing about my MOTHER .

AS we say in french (I 'm going to translate it) I've kept the best for the end . Well they are ALL the best

Let's talk about my mother

She's a fairy ...she has "doigts de fée " (nimble fingers) as I have already explained you for my sister.

She sews all day long and she has such a good taste with a mix of techniques

She knows how to make a dream becomes a reality . She is not just an interior decorator , she creates .

she has wonderful hands ...She is sewing a strip on an entire handmade blind ( we call it store bateau)

here is the result . Look at my dad , he looks so young ...Well sorry for these bad pictures.

they are great upholsterers and interior decorators but not good photographers

I will show you more pictures of this remodeling in a next post

                          BONNE FETE AMOUR

Have a good trip

I'm going to tell you a great story, we will call it " from a provencal attic to a New York museum

The story is about a painting found in a provencal attic ( in Aubagne ) and which is going to a New York Museum.

2 months ago in the the attic's dust I've seen a "king portrait" with a gilded frame .

I felt in love with this painting . I've bought everyting in the attic and of course this portrait . In the back it was written " portrait of Scanderberg in the XVth century"

I've sold it thanks to internet to an albanian patron , let's him called DD.

DD told me :

"the interest ( of this painting )lies in the historical and cultural value that it represents .Albania paid a heavy price after Scanderberg died ,a great deal left their homes and settled in Greece , south of Italy ,Sicily Calabria where even today the old Albanian language and costums still thrives .Scanderberg paved the way for the Albanian Nation as one ,time has been revilling that Scanderberg was not only a Great Warrior but a Statesmen , a great leader  , a man that gave his all for contry and nation , a man that never forgot his roots although he was taken away hostage by the Sultan and converted to islam , he was among other Albanian at heart .thats where the true value lies on the man itself !"

Its very fitting to a great Leader as Scanderberg who  for 25 years stopped one of the most formidable Empires of all time the Ottoman Empire ,therefore delaying the Ottoman dream of conquering Europe ."

for many years,  DD has helped collecting Albanian related  printed matter ,books ,engravings ,paintings ,artifacts ,some books  as old as 1400's and so on ,the backbone of this collection is material with prime subject Scanderberg ,the Albanian King and National Hero .

"As I mention above the collection is growing steady ,the ultimate purpose of all this or our near future dream is to make this collection the stepping stone for a innovative Albanian  Museum/Institute of research and publication .We are working very hard to make this work ! " said DD

I'm glad to have helped a little bit to grow this collection .

For me the most important thing is to sell my antiques to poeple who is going to take care , to appreciate and to cherish them , so there where will be still here in thousands of years.

Now I hope my treasure will have a good trip to NYC

BYE BYE Scanderberg !

Nostalgia

my cousin just comes back from my paternal grand mother's country :

Algeria

He was the first person of the family to go back to our left country since 1962 ....

It is so great to see the pictures of where you are from .

"Alger la Blanche" sight from Notre Dame d'Afrique

the house my grand mother was born

The school she went

the square she met our grand father

My grand mother 6th grade class

My sister and I are the best of two cultures and 2 ways of life : provencal french and  "pied noir"

Some north african souvenirs

We are suposed to go Back to Algiers with our grand mother in October.

Have you ever imagined to leave everything you have somewhere and not to be abble to see it again ?

I guess my grand mother's memories look more like this picture : it is full of Nostalgia