IF YOU RETIRE IN THE SOUTHWEST, WILL THERE BE ANTIQUES?
After a visit to the Loire valley and many famous chateau, I found myself antique hunting in the Southwest. Particularly, while visiting the Chateau d’Usse, I became entranced with a particular water fixture I had seen. Before returning to the states, I wondered if I could find something similar by antique hunting in the southwest of France. This was the lion-faced faucet, mounted at knee-height on the side of one of the greenhouses at Chateau d’Usse.
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We started our hunt by stopping into the well known french garden store called Gamm Vert. While the spout of this garden fixture looks antique and possibly decades old, a thorough search of this garden store was all it took to find one similar.
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With the shiny, new brass spout in hand we set off for the harder part of our journey. We had based ourselves in the wonderful town of Agen, France. We set off in the direction of Nerac to find our elusive lion’s head and used the smaller national and department roads. If you’ve never visited Agen and the surrounding area, this is a great place to start exploring the Southwest.
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This is also a great area to explore the great engineering feat that runs through the town. The Agen Aqueduct carries the Canal du Midi right through the city. You will likely see several houseboats moored along the banks near the Agen train station that have made Agen a stop on their long canal journey.
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We love Montagnac-sur-Auvignon which sits atop a local hill and has a major chateau nearby. As we wandered our way to Nerac for a lunch stop, we stopped in to see a small church that was built as a private chapel for Henry IV of Navarre, nearby.
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Nerac was also a landing spot for Henry IV of Navarre and the town has a wonderful canal that runs through it. Have a lunch along the many riverside restaurants and take a boat out for the afternoon.
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Our first day out looking for a similar antique was a bust but we did get a chance to see many beautiful antiques along the way.
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We had a stiff espresso and a few french pastry before departing our wonderful bed and breakfast. We headed north along the D113 in the direction of the Dordogne. At some point, about halfway to our destination we came upon what was to be the ideal roadside brocante.
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If ever there were a collection of used yard antiques, this was the motherlode. I am sure I have never seen a better collection in all of France. There was a large Iron horse head for a mere €230…
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Of course there was a wide range of junk to sort through…
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But we finally found several fountainheads, one was a rams headed Saytr…
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And several options that were starting to look like the fountainhead I was looking for….
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Finally, we landed on one that was as close as we could ever ask for to the original at Chateau d’Usse. It was a lion and it was covered in rust but our spout from Gamm Vert seemed to fit it pretty well…
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And once we managed to get it sandblasted, painted and installed back in the states, we were very happy with the result. Suffice to say, the Southwest of France over delivered on our quest to replicate the garden faucet we saw at Chateau d’Usse in the Loire Valley.
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Do yourself a favor and visit this area between Bordeaux and Toulouse.
Thank you for reading…L’aventure commence!
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Saint-Germain-en-Laye: A coveted suburb of Paris - · January 23, 2024 at 5:53 pm
[…] that have shaped the region. If you are a fan of antiquities, you may want to check out our post on Antique Hunting in the Southwest of France. This museum’s extensive collection, however, spans prehistoric, Gallo-Roman, and medieval […]
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